August 15, 1976
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1976
Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Publication Department
Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry
PRINTED IN INDIA
This second volume of letters consists of my correspondence with Sri Aurobindo during the third year of sadhana, 1935. The letters of the first two years, 1933 and 1934, have been collected in Volume I. As with the letters of that book, here too many are published for the first time. However, the major portion appeared in the Ashram journal Mother India over a number of years.
For those who have not seen Volume I it may be well to repeat here a part of its Introduction, which throws light on the circumstances surrounding the exchange of letters, because it is necessary for the reader to bear in mind that Sri Aurobindo was replying to a boy in his late teens:
"I came to Pondicherry in 1931 when I was about fourteen years old. In those days the Mother did not admit youngsters into the Ashram. It was only out of her kindness that she made an exception in the case of four children: Bala, Romen, Shanti and myself. We did not have a school here at that time, nor were there regular study classes. Before coming, my mind was occupied with only two things — study and cricket: they were my life and my world. I had almost decided to go to Europe and become a big doctor. I first visited the Ashram during my school vacation just for the sake of making a nice long journey, certainly not for taking up Yoga. I stayed for a month and returned in time for the reopening of my school. During that stay, what the Mother did within my being I could hardly fathom. But the result was that I returned home to stay for only two days, I hurried back here with the full realisation that I could not possibly live, either happily or unhappily, without
the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Till 1933 I did not know what this strange thing called Yoga was. Hence the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were to me just like my own human mother and father. When the correspondence with Sri Aurobindo started, he had to teach me everything, not only what was meant by Yoga but also what culture, religion, philosophy and morality were. He used to correct my English, too, for quite a long time. Whatever I have gained in any way is a growth from the seeds he and the Mother sowed in me during those boyhood days."
Two more years of correspondence with the Master remain, 1936 and 1937. These will appear in a third and final volume in the near future.
Nagin Doshi