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Sri Aurobindo

Autobiographical Notes

and Other Writings of Historical Interest

Part Two. Letters of Historical Interest

3. Other Letters on Yoga and Practical Life 1921–1938

On Yoga and Fund-raising for the Ashram, 1921–1938

To Durgadas Shett [1]1

Pondicherry
May 12. 1921

Dear Durgadas

I received day before yesterday your letter and the Rs 400 you sent me. I accept the money and shall use it for the house for those who come to me for the Yoga. The house is taken and will be ready on the 15th.

There is no reason, no just reason for your indulging the state of mind which is expressed in your letter. You write as if you were not accepted and there was no hope for you. That is not so. Those who sincerely give themselves to me, cannot be rejected. All that was intended in what Barin and Satyen have told you, is that you should come with a complete self-giving and a readiness to renounce everything in you that may be an obstacle to the completeness. The main obstacles in you are an emotional self-indulgence and the ahankara of work etc to which you seem to give a greater importance than to the greater and deeper object of the Yoga. Our Yoga is solely for the development of the divine consciousness in man and all the rest is secondary, work only valuable as the expression of the Divine in the individual and it is to be done by the Divine, not with the ego, not as a work that is yours or to be done by you for the satisfaction of the sense of the [ahaṃ karta] in you. Equally an emotional self-indulgence will stand in the way of the true calm and Ananda which belong to the divine consciousness. If you are ready from the beginning to recognise the difficulties in your own nature, they can be easily removed; otherwise you will have to face much internal trouble and suffering in the first stages of the sadhana. The Sangha of our Yoga must be of men who give up the lower consciousness and the lower nature in order to assume the higher and divine. The formation of a commune for the sake of a particular “work” is not at all the true ideal. It is only as we all grow into the Divine that the true sangha can be created. This you ought to understand clearly and try to fix in yourself before you come here. This also you must understand that I cannot reject yourself and take your money. Money is nothing; it is a mere means and convenience which God will give me whenever and to whatever degree he wills for his purpose. It is yourself, your soul that matters.

Try to understand these things in their true light so that you may be ready, when [you come], to receive completely what I have to give you. Meanwhile put yourself in spiritual relation with me, try to receive me with a passive and unobstructing mind and wait for the call to come here. As soon as I am ready, I shall call you.

As for the others of whom you write, you may speak to them of me hereafter, but you must leave it to me to decide about their fitness and what is best for them. All cannot come to me immediately and each case must be decided according to the truth of the being of each and the will of the Divine with regard to him.

Aurobindo

 

1 A member of a wealthy family of industrialists based in Chandernagore, Durgadas Shett (1895–1958) sent significant amounts of money to Sri Aurobindo through Motilal Roy before 1922. In 1934 his family property was distributed, and he gave most of his share to Sri Aurobindo. Afterwards he lived an austere life; at times he was dependent on Sri Aurobindo for cash for ordinary expenses.

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