Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

Note on the Texts

Letters On Himself and the Ashram consists of letters written by Sri Aurobindo between 1926 and 1950 in which he referred to his life and works, his sadhana or practice of yoga, and the sadhana of members of his ashram. The letters have been selected and arranged by the editors in four parts dealing with four broad subject areas: (1) Sri Aurobindo’s outer life, his writings, his contemporaries, and contemporary events; (2) his inner life before and after his arrival in Pondicherry; (3) his role as a spiritual leader and guide; and (4) his ashram and the sadhana practised there. A fifth part contains mantras and messages that Sri Aurobindo wrote for the benefit of his disciples.

The title chosen for this volume might seem to suggest that Sri Aurobindo deliberately set out to write a large number of letters about his life. In fact, he rarely wrote about himself on his own initiative. He wrote many of the letters in the present volume in answer to questions about himself. He also occasionally referred to himself in passing to illustrate a point under discussion. He explained such references in a letter of 30 October 1935: “I can’t write such things by themselves as an autobiographical essay — it is only if they turn up in the course of something that I can do so” (page 232).

The letters included in this volume have been selected from the large body of letters that Sri Aurobindo wrote to his disciples and others between November 1926, when his ashram was founded, and November 1950, shortly before his passing. Letters from this corpus appear in seven volumes of The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo: Letters on Poetry and Art (Volume 27), Letters on Yoga (Volumes 28–31), The Mother with Letters on the Mother (Volume 32), and the present volume. The titles of these four works specify the nature of the letters included in each, but there is some overlap. For example, Part Four of the present volume contains many letters on yoga. These differ from those published in Letters on Yoga in that the ones published here are framed historically by events and conditions in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram between November 1926 and November 1950. The questions provided along with some of the letters in this volume refer to some of these events and conditions.

Many of the letters in the present volume appeared earlier in Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother (1953) and On Himself: Compiled from Notes and Letters (1972). Those books contained, along with letters from the 1926–1950 period, historical and biographical material such as Sri Aurobindo’s corrections of statements made by biographers, public messages, and letters from the years before 1927 to family members, colleagues, and others. These documents and early letters are now published in Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, Volume 36 of The Complete Works.

The Writing of the Letters

Sri Aurobindo wrote most of the letters included in this volume to members of his ashram, the rest to correspondents living outside. For the history, purpose and nature of the correspondence, see pages 450 to 478.

Ashram members wrote to Sri Aurobindo in notebooks or on loose sheets of paper that were sent to him via an internal “post” once or twice a day. Letters from outside that Sri Aurobindo’s secretary thought he might like to see were sent at the same time. Correspondents wrote in English if they were able to. A good number, however, wrote in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, or French, all of which Sri Aurobindo read fluently, or in other languages that were translated into English for him. Most letters were addressed to the Mother, even though most correspondents assumed that Sri Aurobindo would reply to them.

Sri Aurobindo generally replied on the sheets of paper (bound or loose) on which the correspondents wrote their comments or questions, writing below them or in the margin or between the lines. Sometimes, however, he wrote his answer on a separate, small sheet of “bloc-note” paper. In some cases he had his secretary prepare a typed copy of his letter, which he revised before it was sent. In other cases, particularly when the correspondent was living outside the Ashram, he addressed his reply not to the correspondent but to his secretary, who quoted, paraphrased or translated Sri Aurobindo’s reply and signed the letter himself. In such indirect replies, Sri Aurobindo often referred to himself in the third person.

While going through Sri Aurobindo’s replies, the reader should keep in mind that each one was written to a specific person at a specific time, in specific circumstances and for a specific purpose. Each subject taken up was one that arose in regard to a particular correspondent’s inner or outer needs, or in answer to a particular correspondent’s questions. Sri Aurobindo varied the style and tone of his replies in accordance with his own relationship (or, in the case of people writing from outside, lack of relationship) with each correspondent. With those he was close to, he sometimes employed humour, irony or even sarcasm.

Although the letters were written to specific recipients, they contain much of general interest. This justifies their inclusion in a volume destined for the general public. But it is important for the reader to bear in mind some remarks that Sri Aurobindo made during the 1930s about the proper use of his letters:

~I should like to say, in passing, that it is not always safe to apply practically to oneself what has been written for another. Each sadhak is a case by himself and one cannot always or often take a mental rule and apply it rigidly to all who are practising the Yoga. (Page 473)

~It is not a fact that all I write is meant equally for everybody. That assumes that everybody is alike and there is no difference between sadhak and sadhak. If it were so everybody would advance alike and have the same experiences and take the same time to progress by the same steps and stages. It is not so at all. (Page 475)

Sri Aurobindo wrote all the letters included in this volume between November 1926 and November 1950, the great majority between 1931 and 1937. He sometimes dated his answers, but most of the dates given at the end of the letters in this volume are those of the letters or notebook entries to which he was replying.

The Typing and Revision of the Letters

Most of the shorter items in this volume, and many of the longer ones, were not typed or revised during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime, and are reproduced here directly from his handwritten manuscripts. But a good number of the letters were, as mentioned above, typed for Sri Aurobindo and revised by him before sending. Other letters were typed by the recipients for their own personal use or for circulation within the Ashram. Circulation was at first restricted to members of the Ashram and others whom Sri Aurobindo had accepted as disciples (see pages 476–78). When letters were circulated, personal references were removed. Persons referred to were indicated by initials, or the letters X, Y, {{0}}etc.[[This practice continues in the present volume. See pages 857 – 58 for details.]] Copies of these typed letters were kept by Sri Aurobindo’s secretaries and sometimes presented to him for revision. The typed copies were sometimes filled with “gross errors” (page 476). Sri Aurobindo corrected many of these errors while revising.

The typed copies sometimes also contained intentional textual alterations. Recipients of letters sometimes omitted passages that seemed to them to be of no general interest. In a few cases, recipients added words or phrases that they believed made Sri Aurobindo’s intentions clearer. Some such alterations remained intact when the letters were revised.

Sri Aurobindo’s revision amounted sometimes to a complete rewriting of the letter, sometimes to making minor changes here and there. He generally removed personal references if this had not already been done by the typist. He also, when necessary, rewrote the openings or other parts of the answers in order to free them from dependence on the correspondent’s question. As a result, some letters now read more like brief essays than personal communications.

The Publication of the Letters

Around 1933, Sri Aurobindo’s secretary began to compile selections of letters to be published in small books. A total of four such volumes came out during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime: The Riddle of This World (1933), Lights on Yoga (1935), Bases of Yoga (1936), and More Lights on Yoga (1948). Sri Aurobindo revised the typescripts and proofs of most of these books before publication. During this revision, he continued the process of removing personal references. A letter he wrote in August 1937 alludes to this approach to the revision:

~I had no idea of the book being published as a collection of personal letters — if that were done, they would have to be published whole as such without a word of alteration. I understood the book was meant like the others [i.e., like Bases of Yoga, etc.] where only what was helpful for an understanding of things Yogic was kept with necessary alterations and modifications.... With that idea I have been not only omitting but recasting and adding freely. Otherwise as a book it would be too scrappy and random for public interest. In the other books things too personal were omitted — it seems to me the same rule must hold here — except very sparingly where unavoidable.

By the mid-1940s, a significant body of letters had been collected, typed and revised, and plans were made for the publication of a multi-volume collection of Sri Aurobindo’s letters. At that time, typed or printed copies of letters, some revised, some not, were presented to Sri Aurobindo for approval or further revision. The resulting material was compiled by an editor in four volumes, which were published as Letters of Sri Aurobindo in 1947 (Series One), 1949 (Series Two and Three) and 1951 (Series Four). Most of the letters in Series One, Two and Four were later included in On Yoga II (1958) and Letters on Yoga (1970). Most of the letters in Series Three were later included in Letters on Poetry, Literature and Art (1972).

During the early 1950s, the principal editor of Sri Aurobindo’s letters conceived and organised two volumes containing Sri Aurobindo’s letters on the Mother and on himself. The first of these, Letters of Sri Aurobindo on the Mother, was published in 1951. The second, Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother, was published two years later. The editor arranged the contents of Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother in three parts: (1) Sri Aurobindo on Himself: Notes and Letters on His Life; (2) Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother; and (3) Sri Aurobindo on the Mother. The material comprising Parts Two and Three is published in volume 32 of The Complete Works, The Mother with Letters on the Mother. This material is discussed in the Note on the Texts of that volume.

The editor of Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother subdivided Part One into seven sections: (I) Life before Pondicherry; (II) Beginnings of Yoga; (III) His Path and Other Paths; (IV) Sadhana for the Earth-Consciousness; (V) The Master and the Guide; (VI) The Poet and the Critic; (VII) Reminiscences and Observations. More than half of Section I consisted of corrections of statements made in biographies and in newspaper articles, the rest of letters in which Sri Aurobindo spoke of his early life in passing or in answer to questions. Sections II–V consisted of letters or extracts of letters in which Sri Aurobindo spoke of his own practice of yoga, the path of yoga that he developed for others, and his work as a spiritual guide. Section VI consisted of letters on poetry. (In The Complete Works these and similar letters on poetry, literature and art are included in volume 27, Letters on Poetry and Art, and are discussed in the Note on the Texts of that volume.) Section VII consisted of miscellaneous letters in which Sri Aurobindo spoke of happenings in his past and made observations on various subjects.

The letters in Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother were published along with edited versions of the correspondents’ questions if these were available and the editor thought that they would help readers understand Sri Aurobindo’s replies. The letters were preceded by editorial headings and followed by their dates, if known. The editor restored some personal references that Sri Aurobindo had omitted from collections of letters published during his lifetime, because the very purpose of the book was to present aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s life.

In 1972, Parts One and Two of Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother, both considerably enlarged, were published as On Himself.

The Scope and Contents of Letters on Himself and the Ashram

Between the publication of On Himself in 1972 and the launch of The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo in 1995, a good deal of material of a biographical and historical nature came to light. This necessitated the creation of two different volumes: Letters on Himself and the Ashram and Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical {{0}}Interest.[[Part One of On Himself (1972) comprised 439 text pages. Autobiographical Notes and Letters on Himself and the Ashram comprise together 1398 (553 + 845) text pages. The new volumes thus contain over three times as much material as the older one.]] The editors placed material in one or the other volume according to the following scheme: Letters on Himself and the Ashram contains letters written between November 1926 and November 1950 that deal with any of the four subject areas listed in the first paragraph of this Note. Autobiographical Notes consists of various sorts of documentary material, including life sketches and corrections of statements made by biographers and others; letters written by Sri Aurobindo to family members, professional and political associates, newspaper editors, early disciples, and others before the founding of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926; some letters written after 1926 that form parts of series that began before 1926; letters to or for the attention of public figures, regardless of date; late letters on political questions, most of which were released for publication as messages; and public messages on current events or about Sri Aurobindo’s ashram and method of yoga.

Letters on Himself and the Ashram includes most of the contents of Sections II, III, IV, V and VII of Part One of On Himself, as well as items in Section I that originated as letters and not as corrections. It also contains a fairly large number of letters that had earlier been included in Letters on Yoga, a few letters that had earlier been included in Letters on the Mother, and many items newly selected by the editors from the corpus of Sri Aurobindo’s 1926 – 1950 letters.

In deciding whether a given letter (whether previously published or not) should go into Letters on Himself and the Ashram rather than Letters on Yoga, the editors considered whether the letter ought to be framed historically or not. They placed in Letters on Himself and the Ashram any letter the subject of which fell into one of the four subject areas listed in the first paragraph of this Note. In addition, they placed in this volume some letters that could not properly be understood without reference to the correspondents’ questions. Many letters that appeared in the 1970 edition of Letters on Yoga without questions, including almost all the letters making up Part Two, Section IX of that book (“Sadhana in the Ashram and Outside”), have been shifted to Part Four of Letters on Himself and the Ashram. The questions of the correspondents have been provided for many such letters.

When all the above is taken into consideration, it becomes clear that the present volume is a compilation and does not represent an organic division of Sri Aurobindo’s letters. It is however a lineal descendant of Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother, first published more than fifty years ago. It brings together in a single volume letters from the 1926–1950 corpus in which Sri Aurobindo referred directly or indirectly to his inner and outer life, his works, his contemporaries, and his ashram. These letters, together with the documents published in Autobiographical Notes, constitute nearly all the surviving biographical and historical source materials that Sri Aurobindo wrote.

The Selection, Arrangement and Editing of the Letters

What has been called the 1926–1950 corpus of Sri Aurobindo’s correspondence consists of tens of thousands of replies that he wrote to hundreds of correspondents. Most of the replies, however, went to a few dozen disciples, almost all of them resident members of his ashram. A smaller number of disciples, no more than a dozen, received more than half of the entire body of published letters. In compiling the volumes of Sri Aurobindo’s correspondence published in The Complete Works, the editors have gone through all known manuscripts, typed or photographic copies of manuscripts, and printed texts. From these sources they have selected those letters that seemed suitable for publication. This selection includes most letters consisting of more than a few words that deal with topics of general interest. The editorial staff produced electronic texts of all selected letters and checked them against all handwritten, typed and printed versions.

The selection and arrangement of the material in the book is the work of the editors. Whenever possible they retained the divisions and categories found in On Himself; however, the great increase in the number of items in the present volume obliged the editors to add new parts, sections, chapters and groups. In a note of February 1936, Sri Aurobindo wrote that the placing of letters in group categories was possible in the case of “letters about sadhana”, which could “very easily fall under different heads”.

Letters on Himself and the Ashram consists of almost 1500 separate items, an “item” being defined as what is published between one heading or asterisk and another heading or asterisk. Many items correspond exactly to individual letters; a good number, however, consist of portions of single letters, or two or more letters or portions of letters that were joined together by earlier editors or typists and revised in this form by Sri Aurobindo. The editors of the present volume have sometimes reunited portions of letters that had been separated by previous editors. In some cases, however, they considered the separation justifiable and have retained it.

Whenever possible, letters by Sri Aurobindo are reproduced to their full extent. In some cases, however, the editors, following a pattern set by the editors of previous books, omitted portions of Sri Aurobindo’s letters that are of no general interest. A number of Sri Aurobindo’s letters begin with personal comments unrelated to the more substantial remarks that follow. The editors have left out many such personal openings. Sri Aurobindo often marked the transition from one part of a letter to another with a phrase such as “As to ...”. Many such phrases now stand at the beginning of abbreviated letters.

In some cases the editors have published texts of a given letter in more than one volume of The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Much of this doubling of letters occurs between Letters on Yoga and Letters on Himself and the Ashram. In many cases, the editors have placed Sri Aurobindo’s revised version of a letter in Letters on Yoga and retained the original handwritten version, along with the recipient’s question, in Letters on Himself and the Ashram.

As in previous collections of Sri Aurobindo’s letters, names of members of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and of disciples living outside the Ashram have been replaced by the letters X, Y, Z, etc. In any given letter, X stands for the first name replaced, Y for the second, Z for the third, A for the fourth, and so on. An X in a given letter has no necessary relation to an X in another letter. Names of Ashram members who were referred to by Sri Aurobindo not as sadhaks but as holders of a certain position — notably Nolini Kanta Gupta in his position as Sri Aurobindo’s secretary — are given in full, as are names of people who played a role in the history of the period.

The editors have included the questions to which Sri Aurobindo replied, or the portions of the correspondents’ letters on which he commented, whenever these are available and helpful for understanding his replies or comments. As a rule, only as much of a correspondent’s letter has been given as is needed in order to understand the response. In some cases the questions have been lightly revised for the sake of clarity. Mistakes of grammar, spelling and punctuation due to some correspondents’ imperfect grasp of English have been corrected. Questions written in languages other than English have been translated. When the question is not available, only Sri Aurobindo’s reply is printed.

Readers should note that Sri Aurobindo almost always spelled the word “Asram” without an “h”, though some of his correspondents wrote “Ashram”. Both spellings have been reproduced here following the manuscripts. By the late 1940s, when “Ashram” had become the standard spelling in the Ashram’s publications, Sri Aurobindo was no longer writing letters himself but dictating them to a disciple, who tended to write “Ashram”. This spelling thus occurs in letters of the last period, as well as in headings and other editorial matter throughout the book.