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December 1935 But what is this, Sir, I felt last night? It was a warm touch on my forehead, as warm as your feet at Darshan. But it was so sudden that I doubted it almost. Possible such touches? Possible! What an absurd question to ask! Such touches are quite a common experience in sadhana. There are however different touches. Sometimes the touch is personal, sometimes it is the touch of the Power or Presence from above. Many feel not a warm touch Page - 390 but a wave of something warm descending, etc. December 1, 1935 Naik and I had an interesting discussion about the prognosis of sex-glands in consequence of Yogic abstinence, or any abstinence, for that matter. Naik said that since sex has no place here, there is a possibility of the sex-glands undergoing, atrophic degeneration. I could not agree with him and told him that had it been the case, people who practised brahmacharya, would lose all their virility, energy, radiance, etc. Don't the Yogis say that ojas and tejas can only be produced by such abstinence? That is correct. The whole theory of brahmacharya is based upon that by the Yogis. If it were not so, there would be no need of brahmacharya for producing tejas and ojas.
Naik argued that what is seen as vigour, energy, etc., may be due to the spiritual force descending and flooding the system, and have nothing to do with the sex-gland secretions at all. It is not a question of vigour and energy per se, but of the physical support in that physical support the ojas produced by brahmacharya counts greatly. The transformation of retas into ojas is a transformation of physical substance into a physical (necessarily producing also a vital physical) energy. The spiritual energy by itself can only drive the body, like the vital and mental, but in driving it it would exhaust it if it had not a physical support (I speak of course of the ordinary spiritual energy, not of the supramental to be which will have not only to transmute retas into ojas but ojas into something still more sublimated.)
How is it then that scientists attach no value to sex energy except its use for procreation ? The current theory is that sex is a physiological necessity. If the sex-glands run the risk of an atrophy due to abstinence, you see how dangerous it would be medically. What does your spiritual science say on the matter ? Page - 391 You mean the doctors. But even all doctors do not agree on that; there are many (I have read their opinions) who say that sex- satisfaction is not an absolute necessity and sex-abstinence can be physically very beneficial and is so of course under proper conditions. As for scientists, the product of the sex-glands is considered by them (at least so I have read) as a great support and feeder of the general energies. It has even been considered that sex-force has a great part to play in the production of poetry, art etc. and in the action of genius generally. Finally, it is a doctor who has discovered that the sex-fluid consists of two parts, one meant for sex-purposes, the other as a basis of general energy, and if the sex-action is not indulged the first element tends to be turned into the second, (retas into ojas, as the Yogis had already discovered). Theories ? So are the statements or inferences of the opposite side one theory is as good as another. Anyhow I don't think that the atrophy of the sex- glands by abstinence can be supported by general experience. N's contention is however logical if we take not individual results but the course of evolution and suppose that this evolution will follow the line of the old one, for these useless organs are supposed to disappear or deteriorate. But will the supramental evolution follow the same course as the old one or develop new adaptations of its own making that is the uncertain element. 1. What about P's eyes? She complains that they only repeat ancient history cure and recure and you seem to be quite callous about her hard hard case. What? 2. What about N? He writes that he has realised he was having fever all the time, though it did not occur to him that it was fever. I hope this is not the result of the tuberculous suggestion of Manilal. 3. What happened about A? He was to have another urine examination by Becharlal. Did it take place?
Dr. Valle suggests a radiogram to be taken of S's stomach and intestine. It might be better. But I understand it can't be properly done here. Must be done at Madras or Calcutta. December 3, 1935 Page - 392 Prasanna is better in every respect. But how am I to impress upon her that trachoma is a nasty business, that it takes a long time to cure completely? She does not care about all that. Her point of view is that the doctor is there to cure her and why doesn't he do it? Very careless and callous of him. It is something like the attitude of many to us and our Yogic force.
By her own confession, you will see that there is at least some improvement. Isn't it something? Obviously.
I intend to try a new medicine on Prasanna's eyes, brushing the lids with sodium chlorate powder which is supposed to give good results. But it is rather painful. She has already become aprasanna with our callousness and futile treatment. Who knows what she will be if we give her excruciating pain with sodium chl. and make her from bad to worse? Good Lord! she will make a worse noise than Hercules in the shirt of Nessus!
If you give us courage, we may venture. Not possible. Prasanna will become more than aprasanna, she will become abasanna and do dharna.Ή Won't do.
I knew nothing about N's fever. He swept in today and said he was feverish. Temperature was normal, his feeling can't be due to T. B. suggestion, for he doesn't know what T. B. is. He is writing very aghast notes and demanding an explanation
Ή A play on three Bengali words whose senses here are: prasannā = pleased, soothed; aprasannā = displeased; abasannā = dejected, but literally (one who has) sunk or sat down, whence dharnā, sitting obstinately before the door of a person you hold a grievance against. Page - 393 from me of his perilous condition so I thought it better to refer the matter to the medical authorities.
A's urine was examined. The specific gravity was rather high and we advised him to take less sugar, after that we didn't enquire and he didn't complain. He does not complain I simply wanted to know what had happened.
About S's stomach if there is no radiogram, then we can make at least a screen examination. It might be done only R is in charge. He might object to an allopathic screen pushing into the stomach and upsetting his homeopathic effects, what?
To take up our yesterday's discussion I think Vivekananda said that by observance of brahmacharya, one acquires a prodigious memory. He himself proved it by reproducing anything he was asked from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, though he just took some glances at it. But it was said that only Vivekananda and Anandas like him can do the feat. We have heard about your doing such feats of memory also, on a miniature scale. Hallo!!
But everybody knows that you are a much greater "Ananda, Sir! So perhaps possible. Possible, of course.
What I wanted to say however is that poets and artists, as a class, are rather loose and lavish in their sex economy. If they indulge much in sex, how can their sex-force produce great things ? You have not understood. I was answering the statement that scientists don't attach any value to sex-gland-product and think it is only of use for an external purpose. Many scientists on the Page - 394 contrary consider it a base of productive energy; among other things it plays a part in artistic and poetic production. Not that artists and poets are anchorites and Brahmacharis, but that they have a powerful sex-gland activity, part of which goes to creative and part to (effectual or ineffectual) procreative action. On the latest theory & Yoga theory, the procreative part would be retas, the creative part the basis of ojas. Now supposing the artist or poet to conserve his retas and turn it into ojas, the result would be an increased power of creative productivity. Q.E.D., sir! Logic, sir!
I suppose Valmiki, Vyasa and Kalidasa were complete abstainers, though there is doubt about the last two. Excuse me, there are no doubts about Kalidasa. Very much to the contrary. December 4. 1935 I asked R about S's screen examination. He said he would write to you. I am doubtful about his consent. He is sardonically permissive displeased with S's bull-like unmanageableness and says he does not care whether he is rayed or remains rayless all his life.
I am now caught up in a triangle of confusion: one side of the triangle is story writing, another is poetry and the base concentration, meditation, etc. Make it a triangle of harmony.
Now all on a sudden an onrush of all these three. I've actually completed half a story. Not that it is something great or good. All right great or not, complete it.
My main idea is to attempt to develop a style by constant practice, and to open up my grey matter if possible, though I doubt it very much. Again doubt! Yes, Sir, doubt at every blessed nook and corner. Page - 395 You must have been St. Thomas in a past life, also Hamlet, an Academic philosopher, and several other things.
If I can develop the style, I hope the rest will follow at least you have made me believe so. Of course.
As regards poetry, there again I am inundated by hazy ideas for 2 or 3 compositions and many lines seem to peep out. What is the meaning of this "seem"? Do they peep or do they not peep?
But they seem more bent on tantalising me than meaning anything serious, because as soon as I sit down to transcribe them, they evaporate like ether or camphor. What do you mean? Why should you sit down to transcribe them? Keep hold of the lines and expressions by the nose as soon as they peep out, jump on a piece of paper and dash them down for prospective immortality.
It appears so easy to catch all these amorphous beauties and put them into morphological Grecian statues!... Why amorphous, if they are lines and expressions? lines and expressions are either morphous or they don't exist. Explain yourself, please. The one thing you have not written is how the third side of the triangle manifests its activity. You say, all are active together?
Can you solve this eternal disharmony and is there any possibility of harmony? Every possibility if you will cease to Hamletise and go straight or go baldheaded for the thing to be done when there is a chance.
If poets have powerfully active sex-glands, I suppose I can Page - 396 also be called a poet, at any rate an embryonic one! Q.E.D. Logic, Sir! n est-ce pas? No, sir ce n'est pas ca. You are illegitimately connecting two disconnected syllogisms. 1st syllogism all poets are sex-gland-active, Nirod is a poet, therefore Nirod is sex-gland-active. 2nd syllogism all sex-gland-actives are poets, Nirod is sex-gland-active, therefore Nirod is a poet. The second proposition does not follow from the first as you seem illogically to think. All poets may be sex-gland active, but it does not follow that all sex-gland-actives are poets. So don't start building an epic on your sex-glands, please. December 5, 1935 What shall we do about S? Ray him or leave him ? Wait a while till the present imbroglio is over.
We allopaths are concerned with diagnosis. We open up even a dead man's viscera not to speak of sacrificing so many guinea-pigs which, according to Moni, is much more abominable than goat-sacrifice before Kali. I suppose the objection is to the suffering inflicted which is avoidable in the other cases.
Shall we continue giving K cod-liver oil ? He seems all right. It might be stopped. Perhaps Nergine may be given instead. He will have hard work now, so a little support may be necessary.
You are asking why" amorphous? The lines, expressions, words that I feel swarming all around me, but I cannot put into form, what else shall I call them? If you simply feel things swarming without a shape, then you can't call that lines and expressions it is only the chaotic potentiality of them.
One begins with the morphous lines hoping that the amorphous Page - 397 chaos will sweep in ecstatically and help me build a splendidly original cosmos, and what do I find? Either they elude me or what comes is something fictitious and commonplace. That's another matter. It's like dreams in which one gets splendid lines that put Shakespeare into the shade and one wakes up and enthusiastically jots them down, it turns out to be "O you damned goose, where are you going While the river is flowing, flowing, flowing?" and things like that.
Do you mean that I should scribble down all these expressions as soon as they hop in? Good Lord! there will be parts and pieces only. How shall I make a whole poem out of them? Many poets do that jot down something that comes isolated in the hope that some day it will be utilisable. Tennyson did it, I believe. You don't want to be like Tennyson? Of course it is always permissible for you to pick and choose among these divine fragments and throw away those that are only semi-divine.
Already words and lines of four or five poems in halves and quarters are lying in a comatose condition, without any hope of resurrection. Well, well all that shows you are a poet in the making with hundreds of poems in you also in the making, very much so. The mountains in labour, you know what?
I have told you by some magic there is now a manifested tendency to concentrate. 3-4 duty, 4-4.30 tea, 4.30-6 writing reports, 6-8.30 meal, meditation, duty, 8.30-9 prayer class, 9.30-10.30 or 11 left to me exclusively. So only 9.30-11 is the solid time. What can one write in one or one and a half hours? Lucky man! Ample time, sir, ample time, both to realise the Brahman and to write another Iliad or Nirodiad. Good Lord! what can one write in 1 or 1 ½ hours? If I could only get that time for immortal productions every day! Why in another Page - 398 three years Savitri and Ilion and I don't know how much more would be all rewritten, finished, resplendently complete.
I can write at the most 10 lines which seem so poor a stuff! The question is whether they are really poor or something can be made out of them.
Today I have produced 8 unchiselled lines in the afternoon so I couldn't do any meditation. What of that? Chisel them at the next opportunity.
Please don't ask me to fix the consciousness high while writing, for that is impossible. This is the difficulty I've been facing all along: one part bounding for concentration, another plunging into literature. How can I go straight or baldheaded?
Well, but what I mean is to stop this profitless debate in your stomach and do what you have to do. When you are moved to concentrate, concentrate when you are moved to cosmicise chaos, cosmicise away. And don't waste time in remorses for having done either. Remorse is a damned useless affair, very depressing, defertilising etc. Even if you murder somebody or, what is worse, write lines which amount to a murder of the Muse, remorse is out of place. In the first case, the useful thing to do is to bury the corpse and in the second to seek the capacious arms of the W.P.B.Ή for your misdeed or try to cover it up by doing better.
I was perplexed by your reply about Kalidasa [4.12.35]. You mean he was an abstainer? You seem to know his life very well; then is there any truth in the conjecture that you were Kalidasa? Don't know anything about that. But I said "There are no doubts, very much to the contrary" meaning that everybody knows he was a sex-gland-active.
Ή Waste-paper basket. Page - 399 I have given you my timetable so that you may concentrate on me at the exact time. I hope the mathematical figures won't give you a shock! No fear. Mathematics are more likely to send me to sleep than give a shock. December 6, 1935 We have no Nergine in the Dispensary. No. You can take a box from Dyuman for K.
My, what flattering phrases you use, Sir! "Perfective immortality, etc., etc. Rather startled by this phrase. Can't find it, but don't believe it is a correct reading. J stormed in like a meteor and exclaimed, "Mother has achieved a great victory tonight. Sex-energies of some people have surrendered. I asked, "All occult business, I suppose? "Of course! he answered.
Good Lord, no! J's imaginations, that is all.
Then he said that Mother reveals to his higher mind all her workings. Must be wonderful if it is a fact. The usual delusion! Voices, voices the Mother in a confidential mood on the 7th storey! A very big "if".
We have found that his knowledge is not always true e.g. A. B's story I wrote to you about, for instance. Don't remember. He was writing an absurd affair of A. B's trying to take possession of him and substitute himself for the Mother is it anything to do with that? I told him not to allow himself to be invaded by absurd delusions. But he seems to have only given it another form. Page - 400 He says that very few vitals are free here (not sexually). [Sri Aurobindo drew a line to the word "free".] That seems to be the one thing true in all that he said.
One is linked up with another, e.g. D's lower vital with N's. Rubbish! If D wants to meet the Mother in the vital, he has to go through N's vital, he says. Bejabbus! Ramchandra wants S's stove, sign (?) and coals, kerosene, spirit, cocoa and barley to be removed from his room bodily and summarily. We don't know how to organise this raid. Mother suggests that you might undertake it, the things to be distributed afterwards to the proper quarters. Ready for the heroic deed? As for S, you can tell him "Doctor's orders!" December 7, 1935 I had been plodding at a poem and now it is ready. I called in N K who did in five minutes what would have taken me five hours, and with what result. Do our styles harmonise? What of that? The result is all right. H used to write ten or twelve poems in a day or any number more. It takes me usually a day or two days to write and perfect one or three days even, or if very inspired, I get two short ones out, and have perhaps to revise the next day. Another poet will be like Virgil writing nine lines a day and spending all the rest of his time polishing and polishing. A fourth will be like Monomohan, as I knew him, setting down half lines and fragments and taking 2 weeks or 2 months to put them into shape. The time does not matter, getting it done and the quality alone matter. So forge ahead and don't be discouraged by the prodigious rapidity of Nishikanta. It is certainly a little difficult to keep them. together, especially as Nishikanta's stanzas are strong and fiery and yours are delicate and plaintive. It is like a strong robustious fellow and a delicate slender one walking in a leash they don't quite coalesce. December 8, 1935 Page - 401 Here is N K' s poem. Just think of it a fellow who never has written a single line in English and doesn't know it well, translates his own poem at a shot into a more beautiful, richer poem! Look at his astounding mistakes in spelling but does it matter? No, so long as there is somebody to correct it.
And on the whole the metre also seems all right. What metre? Is it the one I indicated? Amal has corrected the whole thing, he says some of the lines are striking. What would you say, and will you kindly retouch, if necessary? It is very beautiful. Amal has worked much upon it, so it is so surprisingly perfect. The original form is very poetic, but it is only the first two lines of it and the first two also of the second stanza that are quite successful. All the same it is a remarkable endeavour.
N K says that before writing or painting he bows down once before the Mother and you. If that is the secret, why, I shall bow a hundred times, Sir! It depends on how you bow. December 9, 1935 Amal says that he wanted to make a metrical experiment by a sort of combination of iambic and anapaest. You Write that after Amal's correction of N K' s poem, it is surprisingly perfect. Can it be called, a poem, with so many irregular variations? Or would it be called free verse, with some metrical arrangement? What on earth do you mean? Iambics and anapaests can be combined in English verse at any time, provided one does not set out to write a purely iambic or a purely anapaestic metre. Mixed anapaest and iamb make a most beautifully flexible lyric rhythm. It has no more connection with free verse than the constellation of the Page - 402 Great Bear has to do with a cat's tail. Free verse indicates verse free from the shackles of rhyme and metre, but rhythmic (or trying to be rhythmic) in one way or another. If you put rhymes, that will be considered a shackle and the "free" will kick at the chain. The rhythm and metrical arrangement is perfect on the iamb-anapaest basis. I only wanted to know whether that was what Amal intended. For the rhyme scheme of the poem is that of a sonnet and in English the sonnet is always written in iambic pentameter the combination of a lyrical metre with sonnet rhyme scheme is a novel adventure.
If Nishikanta can learn the English metre, he will produce some splendid poems. What do you say? Possibly and even probably only he must learn also what is and is not possible in English poetic style.
I hope you didn't fail
to notice in Nishikanta's poem "With profuse success, each pot of
my every dot fulfils," word for word a translation by him of his Bengali
line Amal and I had a hearty laugh!
Yes, it was a stroke of genius.
Amal said "Better send N K' s poem, as it is, to Sri Aurobindo and ask him whether it would not be better to write such poems in free verse. Free verse would very likely be the death of his new possibility. His genius runs naturally into rhyme.
But don't you agree that it is a very striking piece with much original imagery? It is indeed a remarkable effort, full of beauty and power. You will see that by some changes (for the sake of metre and correct language and style) it becomes a poem of great original beauty.
It seems to be better than the previous one both in force Page - 403 and imagery and yet it doesn't seem to be so oriental. Am I right? You are right; it is much more possible in English.
I believe that Nishikanta will profit immensely if he tries to learn the metre. Yes. This one I have turned into a very flexible amalgam of iambs, trochees and anapaests. It gives to my eye a very attractive and original effect.
I have grave doubts about the success of the orientals in the field of English poetry. It is very difficult for us to enter into the subtleties of English language; and our oriental nature is also unappealing to the Westerners. What you say is no doubt correct, but on the other hand it is possible that the mind of the future will be more international than it is now. In that case the expression of various temperaments in English poetry will have a chance.
Look at Harms poetry. We're so ecstatic over it here, but outside he hardly gets a good audience; not even K seems to like his poetry. I don't think I can put as much value on K' s literary judgments as on his comments on Yoga etc. Some of his criticisms astonished me. For instance he found fault with Harm for using rhymes which Shelley uses freely in his best poems. . You must remember also that Karin' s poetry has been appreciated by some of the finest English writers like Binyon and De la Mare. But anyway all growing writers (unless they are very lucky) meet with depreciation and criticism at first until people get accustomed to it. Perhaps if Harin had published his poems under the name let us say of Harry Chatto, he would have succeeded by this time and no one would have talked of Oriental inaptness.
I always look with pity at our people trying poetic exercises in English, except Harin, and always think of Michael Page - 404 Madhusudan s failure. But I suppose you think otherwise, because you have a big trump up your sleeve the Supermind. My aim is not personal glory, but to arrive at the expression of spiritual truth and experience of all kinds in poetry. The English tongue is the most wide-spread if it can be used for the highest spiritual expression, that is worth trying.
How do you explain Nishikanta's miraculous feat? He can't speak at all correctly in English, whereas he writes wonderful poetry! That has nothing to do with it. Speech and Poetry come from two quite different sources Remember Goldsmith who wrote like an angel and talked like a parrot.
You can't say that it is all due to Yoga. He has been here only for a year and D for so many years, yet the difference between them as poets, is striking. I can understand your yogic success in his Bengali poetry, because the field was ready, but the opening of his channel in English has staggered me. I can't explain if it is your success or his. What do you mean by Yoga? There is a Force here in the atmosphere which will give itself to anyone open to it. Naturally it will work best when the native language is used but it can do big things through English if the channel used is a poetic one and if that channel offers itself. Two things are necessary no personal resistance and some willingness to take trouble about understanding the elementary technique at least so that the transcription may not meet with too many obstacles. Nishikanta has a fine channel and with a very poetic turn in it he offers no resistance to the flow of the force, no interference of his mental ego, only the convenience of his mental individuality. Whether he takes the trouble for the technique is another matter.
I had written to you that Nishikanta bows in front of your photograph before he sits down to write, and that I am ready to bow a hundred times, if that is the trick. You answered Page - 405 that it depends on how one bows. Methinks it does not depend on it. Even if it did I don't think Nishikanta knows it. Or was it in his past life that he knew it ? Well, there is a certain faculty of effacing oneself and letting the Universal Force run through you that is the way of bowing. It can be acquired by various means, but also one may have the capacity for doing it in certain directions by nature. December 10. 1935 After hearing what you have written regarding the learning of metre, Nishikanta approached Ramchandra for learning it; because it was he who had given him the push to write in English. But Ramchandra wants to read with him English poetry, so that he may plunge into the spirit before learning metre. To develop the English poetic style, I suppose, it would be the best plan. It is not English yet. But they can do like that if they prefer. Right rhythm however is the one thing still lacking and, until he learns it, these efforts will be only a promise.
Are we taxing you too much by this occupation with our poetry? If not, Nishikanta proposes to send you one poem a day. How would you like having the dish every night? You can send it. I will look at the dish even if I don't devour it. December 11, 1935 Here is a lyrical dish prepared by Nishikanta all on a sudden after reading a book on metre. How do you find it? For a first attempt remarkable but he has not yet the necessary niceties of phrase and rhythm. The first three lines of the second stanza are very powerful, as good a thing as any English poet could have written. With some doctoring it makes a powerful lyric.
Nishikanta has got the metre all right this time. Page - 406 Almost he has the gift. But there are defects e.g. he sometimes gave 3 ft. for 2 ft. lines and vice-versa. Having made a scheme he should keep to it.
He wants to know how to get the right rhythm and the right poetic style. I said by reading English poetry. Yes, reading and listening with the inner ear to the modulation of the lines.
About myself as I go on writing, the lines, expressions, images seem so commonplace that I distrust the value of my work. It is no use being too squeamish at first. By that distrust you can depreciate good as well as cheap values.
Secondly, I get tired of waiting and leave off, say after an how. What else can one do? Where is the ego or personal resistance you speak of? I didn't mean all that. I meant that a certain Nirod gets in the way, is too active or two blocky. Too subtle for farther explanation, you have to feel.
It is not the question of "being open" or "knowing how to bow", but having a poetic being open or semi-open... It has nothing to do with the poetic being.
"Personal resistance, mental ego" are phrases, for there must first be a poetic being, for an ego to resist. The poetic being is not burdened with an ego. It is the outer being which contributes that.
Nishikanta started with a desire to write after reading about metre, but without any central idea. After an hour or so he felt a power descending, then the poem began to unroll itself. But he had no sleep at night. Page - 407 That is all right except for the no sleep which I don't exactly advise.
It means one need not have any preformed ideas, not even inspiration, a simple desire will do. But that is the inspiration when something descends.
Will sun-treatment do any good to A's eyes ? Mother does not think it is safe for A. It might help her eyes, but her system might suffer from the sun exposure.
Something great, something big you have done, Sir. Will you kindly whisper ? I am always doing something big, but never big enough as yet.
Really, Sir, do tell us, if no objection. Eh, what? [Underlined.] December 12, 1935 There is again a quarrel between X and Y, and I am asked to intervene; if I don't there'll be a row. I must have your permission. Permission for the row? I am utterly against rows. If sadhaks want them, it must be done on their responsibility. I neither permit nor refuse.
X says that she is suffering a lot. It seems to me at times that she is a being of another world and incompatible with this world. What is the cause of her suffering? Ego, foolishness, insincerity a false claim that she is more noble and ideal than others while in reality her vital is made just like any other human vital... I am afraid your idea that she is a superior being from a more beautiful world (if that is what you think) can't hold water. Page - 408 I am sorry for X, but she creates her own difficulties. She will not do what is necessary to have peace. If she went back from her ego, her demand on others, she would have peace soon enough.
I hate to disturb you with all these stories. Is it an individual affair that one should decide for oneself? Surely it is an individual affair, being a clash of egos. There ought to be no such individual affairs in a Yoga Asram, but ought and is are far asunder. December 13, 1935 About the individual affair, it may be so, but aren't most of the affairs that happen in the Asram, individual? That is why we never take sides in these "affairs".
But have you not yourself said that very often when subtle planes are touched for transformation, all these impurities surge up in sadhaks? In that case, there is nothing but touching and surging and if we go on touching by interventions there will be surgings for ever and ever.
And these individual affairs are bound to be there so long as our nature is what it is, especially when we are allowed so much freedom, a long rope. I can not justifying our weaknesses. If there is no freedom, there can be no change there could only be a routine practice of conformity to the Yogic ideal without the reality. I was speaking of course of quarrels when I referred to individual affairs. If I intervene, that means in practice I "take sides" as people put it, by passing judgment. X herself has often accused us of refusing to protect her self-righteous and noble self against the wickednesses and unprovoked oppression of Y ... If I "support" X, Y will be at once a candidate for departure and suicide. And yet you say I ought to intervene! Page - 409 These individual affairs are sure to end ultimately by reaching you, for people will write letters from all sides; and your letters of pacification will follow. I have been answering such letters by more and more brief replies and now very few write to me.
X says that I should support her at least on the basis of old family relation. What a wonderful principle of conduct for an Asram! It might serve in Arabia, Corsica or ancient Greece.
About X's novel-affair, you said it is her individual concern. True, but poets and artists have to take their occupation as sadhana. There is no objection to that, but an egoistic quarrel is not sadhana.
But you will say that it is a mixture of ego, desire for fame, etc. The whole thing was that and nothing else.
When the whole situation became too complex one had to seek for your advice. The people who quarrel don't come for advice, but for support against the other fellow. You came for permission, but permission would have meant support from me to X. So my answer "I neither support nor refuse."
As a consequence of all this, X is upset, causing a fall in her sadhana. One has then to approach you and explain why it is so. No doubt, but why should she expect a support for her ego which is the cause of her fall from sadhana, the affair being only an occasion for the said ego? Page - 410 Can you then silence me or be indifferent to my condition by saying that it is my individual affair? I did not say it was yours it is not yours at all. It is individual to X, Y, Z...
If two of us quarrel and break our heads, will you keep quiet saying that it is an individual affair, look out for yourselves ? Yes, certainly, I keep quiet. Formerly, I used to intervene, the result was more and more quarrelling, each side either quoting me in self- justification or else abusing Mother and myself and doubting our divinity because we did not side with them. Now we have resolved never to intervene. When C, S etc. write about their quarrels, (they do it very seldom nowadays), we say nothing about the quarrel, we only answer "Restrain your passions, overcome your vital and your ego. You are concerned with Yoga; don't be upset by what C (or S) says or does or anybody says and does." Or we keep quiet and answer nothing.
You can say Karmayoga but no ego, please. Karmayoga does not mean the free indulgence of ego.
True, but through imperfections, perfection has to be attained. Not by indulging the imperfections and calling for the Guru's support for them. December 14. 1935 Sending you one more poem by N K. Seems a very interesting piece. If it could have been done well, it would have been very attractive and original. It is indeed matter of which a fine poem can be made. Nishikanta has imagination and the ideas carry beauty in them, the language also, but he has not yet knowledge of the turns of the English tongue which make the beauty effective. I have tried to make it as perfect Page - 411 as an hour's work can do but that is not enough, it might be better.
But from the immensely profuse amount of corrections you have made and have to make, I wonder whether we are taking too much liberty with your precious Supramental time. But Supramental is beyond Time that is the hope. If I have not time, I shall keep till I have. The poems are such good matter of poetry that it is worth the trouble.
Amal says you take very little time in these things. Usually, yes. A quarter of an hour is enough; but these last two took more time. .
If Nishikanta goes for the proper technique at present, there may be a check on his flow, no? Possibly, though fidelity to metre can be a help as well as check as it makes the God of Words more alert, skilful and subtle.
About my metre, shall I approach Amal or Arjava ? Amal is willing. Either.
Everyone is doing something. I am only Tennysonning. Don't you feel pity for me, Sir? Not so much. If you were browning, I might. On second thought, I keep the poem one day more. December 16, 1935 I don't say that images, expressions may not sweep in, but one has to beat, beat and beat. Beat-beating is not sweeping in.
I have found that a poem may follow automatically, spontaneously Page - 412 with rich images and expressions, though one doesn't know what will follow next. That gives a real delight and what comes is genuine stuff. That is the proper way of inspiration.
Two of my poems that you liked very much came in that way. But unfortunately all don't and one has to work hard. Sometimes there is success, at other times failure. Can you tell me on what these variations depend? It depends on whether the inspiration flows in or the fabricating mind labours. You are obliged to have a mixed method, part inspiration, part mental, because the inspiration is not yet free to pass through. Beat-beating is the sign of the mind at work like a God-forgotten blacksmith; the flow is the sign of the Muse pouring down things at her ease.
What's up with J? Trying to bring down the Supermind or going off the deep end? I fear he is wandering in the intermediate zone. How much is occultifying drama and how much is real aberration is the question.
I can't ask him to work when he's in such a mood. Don't. You can keep this note-book, but what about the one lying with you ? I was returning it this morning, but I found one place all wrong and have been beat-beating at it penultimate stanza 2nd and 3rd lines. Made something at last but not very very right. December 18, 1935 Two poems by Nishikanta enclosed; one old and the other new. But no use asking what the metre is. He has already begun learning it. Page - 413 All right, I think. Rereading it, I find it trθs joli. Congratulations to myself and Nishikanta with Nirod Talukdar in the middle.
Why bother about the metre, precise English, etc? They will come some day and in the meantime let him go on writing and learning by corrections, lessons, so on. That's all right but I rub in a bit about metre and stresses so that his ear may learn and yours also. Judging by the last poem there is a distinct progress but where is the credit? Corrected by Amal? or only by your sole poetic self?
How do you rhyme "life and "cliff, "smile and "will, "came and "whim? Are they all whims? These are called in English imperfect rhymes and can be freely but not too freely used. Only you have to understand the approximations and kinships of vowel-sounds in English, otherwise you will produce illegitimate children like "splendour" and "wonder" which is not a rhyme but an assonance.
By the way you didn't like my poem or you hesitate to call it mine, because of so many corrections by Nishikanta? Others say that it is very fine. It was very good; mixed parentage does not matter, so long as the offspring is beautiful. December 19, 1935 Nishikanta has written: "I am tuned in thy tremolo of dreamland, heaven and earth." Is the word tremolo all right? It is rather strange, but perhaps it will do.
The credit of this poem goes entirely to him. You'll be glad to see that your effort at metrical lessons has proved fruitful. Evidently with a little care and practice Nishikanta ought soon to be able to handle English metre. He has the gift. Page - 414 I have no objection to being the trait-d' union in the "mixed parentage, but for heaven's sake drop that appendage TalukdarΉ, Sir. It is absolutely prosaic when I am trying to be poetic! All right. Only it is a pity it was such a mouthful! It may be prosaic in Bengali, but to one ignorant of the meaning it sounds as if you were a Roman emperor.
As for the next poem, it is as usual, of mixed parentage. Please see if it has blossomed as a beauty! Nishikanta finds it one of my best, but when I completed it, I said "Won't do! Won't do!" [Sri Aurobindo underlined "Won't do! Won't do!"] Rubbish! It is exceedingly fine and your won't do is nonsense.
If N K is right, then my poetic sense is no good, or am I too self-critical? Your poetic sense seems all right when you judge N K' s or other poetry. Not self-critical, self-depreciatory.
While I was having a nap in the afternoon, I had a vision of a very beautiful woman sitting under the sun. The rays of the sun were either surrounding her or were emanating from her body I can't precisely say which. The appearance and dress seemed to be more European than oriental. It is not a woman. A woman does not radiate and is not surrounded by rays either. Probably a Sun-Goddess or a Shakti of the inner Light, one of the Mother's Powers. December 20, 1935 J is of the opinion that too much colour and imagery conceal the thought-substance in poetry. It is better to be as simple and direct as possible.
Ή A small land-holder. Page - 415 One can't make rigid rules like that. Wordsworth is as simple and direct as possible (not always though), Keats aims at word-magic. One can't say Wordsworth is a greater poet than Keats. Whatever style is poetically successful, is admissible.
Next point she makes is that it is better not to close a poem too often with a direct prayer. Too often, of course not. For then it becomes a mannerism.
The last 2 lines of the poem I' ve sent you, are weaker than the preceding lines, because they are a prayer. They are weaker, but not because they are a direct prayer. Why can't a prayer be strong? I will send you one day a poem of mine where there is a direct prayer.
Can you not give some suggestions for improvement ? Don't plead on your ignorance of Bengali; surely you can point out the defects. I can tell my impression, but I can't say how it will affect a Bengali reader. My mind may be too international to coincide with the Bengali reader's. I may also miss fine distinctions which he can make,I mean, shades of language, what is or is not possible, or is or is not native to the language.
You will be glad to know that I am working like a devil, at poetry; anyway, it will keep the d ─ out, wont it? Of course! December 21, 1935 I seem to understand that trochees are to be avoided in an iambic-anapaest poem; but maybe I am wrong, for in a book on metre I find that trochee is a common modulation of iambs, specially in the first line. By the change you have made in the line "Crystals at her feet" into "Is a crystal at her feet", does it mean that Page - 416 in an iamb-anapaest poem every line must have at least one iamb-anapaest foot? Trochees are perfectly admissible in an iambic line as a modulation especially in the first foot (not first line), but also occasionally in the middle. In the last foot a trochee is not admissible. Also these trochees must not be so arranged as to turn an iambic into a trochaic line. My dear sir, this is an instance of importing one's own inferences instead of confining oneself to the plain meaning of the statement. First of all the rules concerning a mixed iambic-anapaestic cannot be the same as those that govern a pure iambic. Secondly what I objected to was the trochaic run of the line. Two trochees followed by a long syllable, not a single iamb or anapaest in the whole! How can there be an iambic line or an iambic anapaestic without a single iamb or anapaest in it? The line as written could only scan either as a trochaic, therefore not iambic line, or thus -ﮞﮞ /ﮞ-/, that is a trochee followed by an anapaest. Here of course there is an anapaest, but the combination is impossible rhythmically because it involves three short syllables one after another in an unreadable collocation one is obliged to put a minor stress on the "at" and that at once makes the trochaic line. In the iambic anapaestic line a trochee followed by an iamb can be allowed in the first foot; elsewhere it has to be admitted with caution so as not to disturb the rhythm.
I find the English metre very difficult because the same word is stressed or non-stressed according to the combination. How can one then be guided? You mean the same syllable? It is syllables, not words that are stressed. About the modulations, any numbers can be crowded in, it appears; only foot-numbers should be equal for the sake of harmony. What numbers do you mean? The rules are perfectly clear and intelligible; only of course you must know what are the accents and what modulations are or are not possible. That means that Page - 417 you must know something about the language; that is all. I have given you however some rules for the modulations in iambic verse they are not exhaustive. In modern verse one can pepper an iambic line with anapaests I have done so myself in the A sonnets. But one must be very careful how one does it. This license is not for beginners.
If poets were to be guided by such metrical rules, they'd stop writing altogether! How did the English poets write then? What about the poem you promised yesterday? Golden chance, tomorrow being Sunday! What poem? Sunday is not a golden chance because I have any amount of work to do on that day wiping off arrears. People also often choose to forget that it is Sunday. Don't you always tell the Mother what we write? She didn't know that the oculist is on leave. I told Mother what you said, but you gave no date for the oculist's leave, only put it in the future. December 22, 1935 What poem, indeed! Didn't you say you'd send me a poem showing the force of direct prayer? You forget so easily! Excuse me. I said I will send one day. One day may mean after some weeks, some months, or some years. I heard that R was called to see a case outside, which has been given up as hopeless by the French doctors, including Valle. By the best doctors in Pondicherry, Valle, Amaladasan and others. They dosed and injected and he was near to his last gasp when Valle ran to R as a last chance. Page - 418 Today R comes and tells me that the patient has gone to his office! A fact. And that you have congratulated him on his success!! A fact. Why should I not, when an almost dead man rises full of life and energy in a few hours? A miracle ! I am flabbergasted, really! Well and then? It should raise you up, not cast you down. R showed me some observations made by those doctors on blood-pressure, urine, etc. and asked me their significance. I found that the case was probably chronic interstitial nephritis. That was reported to me by R from the first. From a further talk I discovered that R has very little idea of what it is. And yet he goes and saves a dying man! Do you deny the fact? Again, it seems to me that he acted as an instrument or medium and nothing else. What do you mean by nothing else? A human instrument without capacity can do things like that? That would be far more miraculous, impossible, incredible, surely, than a homeopath whose whole system is founded on symptomatology curing people. R says findings of urine are not necessary. Leave the patient to nature. I said albumin is a danger sign, it has to be eliminated through diet and medicine etc., otherwise there is a possibility of relapse. He replied, but he wants now to take meat, drink, etc. Page - 419 A relapse is always possible, if, as R wrote to me, the man is a reckless bon vivant going strong and drinking. But that is his affair; his resuscitation remains a fact. This instance has proved to me that homeopaths are concerned with symptoms, not with the disease itself, of which they have not much knowledge. If relying on symptoms alone, he has cured this man, I shall be the last person to believe it. Because you are tied in your own system and do not understand that Nature is not so rigid as your mental ideas. All big homeopaths I've heard of, were allopaths before, i.e. they knew anatomy, physiology, pathology, etc. But R is unique and his cures are unique. So I am puzzled, puzzled about the real mystery behind. . . Did they cure by allopathic treatment, then? Is it not the very principle of homeopathy that it cures the disease by curing the symptoms? I have always heard so. Do you deny that homeopaths acting on their own system, not on yours, have cured illnesses? If they have, is it not more logical to suppose that there is something in their system than to proclaim the sacrosanct infallibility of the sole allopathic system and its principle? For that matter I myself cure more often by attacking the symptoms than by any other way, because medical diagnosis is uncertain and fallible while the symptoms are there for everybody to see. Of course if a correct indisputable diagnosis is there, so much the better the view can be more complete, the action easier, the result more sure. But even without infallible diagnosis one can act and get a cure. When all doctors have failed, how does R proclaim that he will pull a man out without knowing anything of the nature of the disease? Because he has confidence in himself, like all who are able to do in any field big things. He knew there was blood-pressure and he fixed his whole energy in bringing that down and did it. Page - 420 |
