Section Three DIFFICULTIES OF THE PATH-FINDERS THE DIFFICULT PATH Nobody has found this Yoga a Grand Trunk Road, neither X nor Y nor even myself or the Mother. All such ideas are a romantic illusion. August,1935 THE BURDEN OF HUMANITY We have had sufferings and struggles to which yours is a mere child's play; I have not made our cases equal to yours. I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness — if nobody can follow the Way, then either our conception of the thing, which is also that of Christ and Krishna and Buddha also, is all wrong or the whole life and action of the Avat

Section Nine SOME EARLY LETTERS This Section consists of some letters written by Sri Aurobindo during the early period of his stay at Pondicherry after his arrival there in 1910. Part I includes letters relating to his personal Sadhana written during 1911 to 1916. Part II contains two letters written in 1920 in reply to appeals to him from two Indian nationalist leaders to come back to British India to resume leadership of Indian politics. Part III contains three letters written in 1922 relating to the plan that he had then conceived to extend his work outside after his long retirement in inner Sadhana. SOME EARLY LETTERS I. EARLY SADHA

SECTION FOUR SADHANA FOR THE EARTH-CONSCIOUSNESS SRI AUROBINDO AND SUPERMAN I don't know that I have called myself a Superman. But certainly I have risen above the ordinary human mind, otherwise I would not think of trying to bring down the Supermind into the physical. 15-9-1935 OBJECT OF SEEKING THE SUPERMIND These egoistic terms are not those in which my vital moves. It is a higher Truth I seek, whether it makes men greater or not is not the question, but whether it will give them truth and peace and light to live in and make life something better than a struggle with ignorance and falsehood and pain and strife. Then, even if

Section Five THE MASTER AND THE GUIDE CONDITIONS OF ACCEPTANCE AS DISCIPLES I do not very readily accept disciples as this path of Yoga is a difficult one and it can be followed only if there is a special call. If he wishes to accept my Yoga the conditions are a steady resolve and aspiration towards the truth I am bringing down, a calm passivity and an opening upward towards the source from which the light is coming. The Shakti is already working in him and if he takes and keeps this attitude and has a complete confidence in me, there is no reason why he should not advance safely in the Sadhana. 9-12-1922 As for the Zamindar he seems to expect so

PART TWO SRI AUROBINDO ON HIMSELF AND ON THE MOTHER Section One LEADERS OF EVOLUTION SRI AUROBINDO AND THE MOTHER AS AVATARS Q: We believe that both you and the Mother are Avatars. But is it only in this life that both of you have shown your divinity? It is said that you and she have been on the earth constantly since its creation. What were you doing during the previous lives? A: Carrying on the evolution. Q: I find it difficult to understand so concise a statement. Can't you elaborate it? A: That would mean writing the whole of human history. I can only say that as there are special descents to carry on the evolution to

NOTE Sri Aurobindo was very emphatic in stating that only he could write truly about himself; but he never wrote any comprehensive or systematic account of his life. Only in his correspondence with his disciples and others he sometimes explained points by incidentally referring to some event in his own life or some experience in his own Yogic development. Also on a few occasions he corrected misleading statements concerning him published in some journals and books and gave notes about some points in his life to three of his biographers who had submitted their manuscripts to him for verification. All this material has been compiled and presented in a systematic arrangement

section TWO BEGINNINGS OF YOGA AN EARLY EXPERIENCE Q: X says that it is written somewhere that you had a realisation in 1890. Is it true ? A: A realisation in 1890? It does not seem possible. There was something, though I was not doing Yoga and knew nothing about it, in the year of my departure from England; I don't remember which it was but probably 1892-93.... I don't remember anything special in 1890. Where did he see this written? 22-8-1936 GLIMPSES OF SPIRITUAL POSSIBILITY Q: Is it true that only those who had, before beginning their Sadhana, a clear knowledge of their spiritual possibility through a definite glimpse

Section Four HELPERS ON THE WAY REASON FOR FORMING THE ASHRAM There was no Ashram at first, only a few people came to live near Sri Aurobindo and practise Yoga. It was only some time after the Mother came from Japan that it took the form of the Ashram, more from the wish of the Sadhaks who desired to entrust their whole inner and outer life to the Mother than from any intention or plan of hers or of Sri Aurobindo. The facts are: In the meantime, the Mother, after a long stay in France and Japan, returned to Pondicherry on the 24th April, 1920. The number of disciples then showed a tendency to increase rather rapidly. When the Ashram began to develop, it

III. THE LEADER OF INDIAN NATIONALISM: 1906-1910 A GENERAL NOTE ON SRI AUROBINDO'S POLITICAL LIFE There were three sides to Sri Aurobindo's political ideas and activities. First, there was the action with which he started, a secret revolutionary propaganda and organisation of which the central object was the preparation of an armed insurrection. Secondly, there was a public propaganda intended to convert the whole nation to the ideal of independence which was regarded, when he entered into politics, by the vast majority of Indians as unpractical and impossible, an almost insane chimera. It was thought that the British Empire was too powerful and I