-09_Passing Thoughts

There is no word so plastic and uncertain in its meaning as the word religion. The word is European and, therefore, it is as well to know first what the Europeans mean by it. In this matter we find them, — when they can be got to think clearly on the matter at all, which is itself unusual, — divided in opinion. Sometimes they use it as equivalent to a set of beliefs, sometimes as equivalent to morality coupled with a belief in God, sometimes as equivalent to a set of pietistic actions and emotions. Faith, works and pious observances these are the three recognised elements of European religion. From works, however, the ordinary work of the world is strictly excluded. Religion and daily life are, in the European opinion, two entirely different things which it is superstitious, barbarous, unenlightened and highly inconvenient to mix up together. Altruistic works are sometimes brought under religion, sometimes excluded from it. The idea of knowledge being part of religion is a conception which the European cannot receive into his intellect; religion and knowledge are to him two things absolutely and eternally unconnected, if not opposed and mutually contradictory of each other. The place of knowledge is taken by faith or belief stripped of any reason for the belief. The average Christian believes that the Bible is God's book, but ordinarily he does not consider anything in God's book binding on him in practice except to believe in God and go to Church once a week; the rest is only meant for the exceptionally pious. On the whole, therefore, to believe in God, to believe that He wrote a book, — only one book in all these ages, — and to go to Church on Sunday is the minimum of religion in Europe; on these essentials piety and morality may supervene and deepen the meaning.

from the heights of Yoga to strangling your fellowman and relieving him of the worldly goods he may happen to be carrying with him. It would therefore take too long to enumerate everything that can be included in Indian religion. Briefly, however, it is dharma or living religiously, the whole life being governed by religion. But again what is living religiously? It means, in ordinary practice, living according to authority. The authority generally accepted is the Shastra; but when one studies the Shastra and Indian life side by side, one finds that the two have very little to do with the other; the Indian governs his life not by the Shastra but by custom and the opinion of the nearest Brahmin. In practice this resolves itself into certain observances and social customs of which he understands neither the spiritual meaning nor the practical utility. To venerate the Scriptures without knowing them and to obey custom in their place; to reverence all Brahmins whether they are venerable or despicable; to eat nothing cooked by a social inferior; to marry one's daughter before puberty and one's son as soon as possible after it; to keep women ignorant and domestically useful; to bathe scrupulously and go through certain fixed ablutions; to eat on the floor and not at a table; to do one's devotions twice a day without understanding them; to observe a host of meaningless minutae in one's daily conduct; to keep the Hindu holidays, when an image is set up, worshipped and thrown away, — this in India is the minimum of religion. This is glorified as Hinduism and the Sanatana Dharma. If, in addition, a man has emotional or ecstatic piety, he is a Bhakta; if he can talk fluently about the Veda, Upanishads, Darshanas and Puranas, he is a Jnani. If he puts on a yellow robe and does nothing, he is a a tyagi or sannyasin. The latter is liberated from the ordinary dharma, but only if he does nothing but beg and vegetate. All work must be according to custom and the Brahmin. The one superiority of average Indian religion is that it does really reverence the genuine Bhakta or Sannyasin provided he does not come with too strange a garb or too revolutionary an aspect. The European almost invariably sets him down as a charlatan, professional religionist, idle drone or religious maniac.

Turning away from this sorrowful debris of ancient religious forms in India and Europe, we may fix the genuine minimum of religion at this — to know God, to love and to serve him. The Europeans think that to fear God is a noble part of religion, forgetting the dictum of the Bible that perfect love casteth out fear and that the devils also believe and tremble. Perfect knowledge, perfect service also cast out fear. One may know, love and serve God as the Master, Lover, Friend, Mother; or as the Higher Self; or as Humanity; or as the Self in all creatures. If it be objected that this gives scope to Atheism, it must be remembered that Buddha also has been termed an Atheist. The average Hindu is right in his conception of religion as dharma, to live according to holy rule; but the holy rule is not a mass of fugitive and temporary customs, but this, to live for God in oneself and others and not for oneself only, to make the whole life a sadhana the object of which is to realise the Divine in the world by work, love and knowledge.

There is a maximum as well as a minimum, and that is to rise beyond this life into a higher existence, not necessarily for oneself alone or in order to leave the world and vanish into the Universal, but as the highest have done, as God Himself habitually does, to bring down the bliss, illumination and greatness of that higher existence into the material world of creatures. All that rises beyond the minimum to the maximum, even though it may not attain it, is the Para Dharma; the minimum is the Apara. To be a good, unselfish and religious man is the apara or lower dharma; to reach God revealed and bring Him down to earth where He hides Himself, is the higher. This is the Secret Wisdom, which defeats itself if it remains for ever secret. For this the great Avatars, Teachers and Lovers come, to reveal Him in divine knowledge, to reveal Him in mighty action, to reveal Him in utter delight and love.

GOD is the supreme Jesuit Father. He is ever doing evil that good may come of it; ever misleads for a greater leading; ever oppresses our will that it may arrive at last at an infinite freedom.

Our Evil is to God not evil, but ignorance and imperfection, our good a lesser imperfection.

The religionist speaks a truth, though too violently, when he tells us that even our greatest and purest virtue is as vileness before the divine nature of God.

To be beyond good and evil is not to act sin or virtue indifferently, but to arrive at a high and universal good.

That good is not our ethical virtue which is a relative and erring light on the earth; it is supra-ethical and divine.

I know that the opposite of what I say is true, but for the present what I say is still truer.

I believe with you, my friends, that God, if He exists, is a demon and an ogre. But after all what are you going to do about it?

These two groups of aphorisms were written about the same time as those already published in Thoughts and Aphorisms. See Archival Notes, page 85.

What you are doing is entirely the right thing and nothing more is needed. The peace you feel is the basis, the foundation for the transformation; all the rest will be built on it. To open to the Divine Forces with a quiet and strong aspiration, to become conscious of their working, to allow quietly that working and calmly to contain it, seconding it with one's aspiration, getting more and more knowledge and understanding of what is being done as one goes on — this is the sound and natural way of the Yoga.

The thing that happened about the postcards is not at all an accident,¹ it is a normal happening and occurs very frequently even in ordinary life, but people do not notice it or do not give any value to it, dismissing it perhaps as an accident or coincidence. It is called telepathy in English nowadays — that is, to feel at a distance the thought, sentiment or experience (some event or reaction to an event) of another. There are people nowadays in the West who practice thought exchange at a distance. When the Yogic consciousness develops, this kind of telepathic knowledge becomes much more conscious and frequent and can be organised into a habitual action and well-controlled instrumentation of the consciousness, a normal activity of the nature.

1 The disciple had written: "I am enclosing herewith two cards for your perusal and return, marked as (a) and (b), bearing the same date — 21st September 1932. In (a) my friend asks me about my welfare...and in (b) I reply that I am all right, he need not be anxious, as marked. The card (a) seen with a magnifying glass at the place marked will show the date 21 Sept. 32 stamped at K and the date 21st Sept. 1932 has been underlined in (b) at the top. I got this letter back, sent from K afterwards in a separate envelope. On the 21st September 1932, I sat quietly in the afternoon for some time, then I felt that my friend was growing anxious of me, so I should write him and I wrote accordingly a little after on the very same day.

"Now I wish to learn whether such a cross-letter is a mere accident or has some rule behind it. In the latter case, a throwing of light on the rule is solicited."

I FIND nothing either to add or to object to in Professor Sorley's comment on the still bright and clear mind; it adequately indicates the process by which the mind makes itself ready for the reflection of the higher Truth in its undisturbed surface or substance. But one thing perhaps needs to be kept in view — that this pure stillness of the mind is indeed always the required condition, the desideratum, but to bring it about there are more ways than one. It is not, for instance, only by an effort of the mind itself to get clear of all intrusive emotion or passion, to quiet its own characteristic vibrations, to resist the obscuring fumes of a physical inertia which brings about a sleep or a torpor of the mind instead of its wakeful silence, that the thing can be done. This is indeed an ordinary process of the Yogic path of knowledge; but the same end can be brought about or automatically happen by other processes — for instance, by the descent from above of a great spiritual stillness imposing silence on the mind and heart, on the life stimuli, on the physical reflexes. A sudden descent of this kind or a series of descents accumulative in force and efficacy is a well-known phenomenon of spiritual experience. Or again one may start a mental process of one kind or another for the purpose which would normally mean a long labour and yet may pull down or be seized midway, or even at the outset, by an overmind influx, a rapid intervention or manifestation of the higher Silence, with an effect sudden, instantaneous, out of all proportion to the means used at the beginning. One commences with a method, but the work is taken up by a Grace from above, by a response from That to which one aspires or by an irruption of the infinitudes of the Spirit. It was in this last way that I myself came by the mind's absolute silence unimaginable to me before I had the actual experience.

There is another question of some importance — what is the exact nature of this brightness, clearness, stillness, of what is it constituted, — more precisely is it merely a psychological condition or something more? Professor Sorley says these epithets are after all metaphors and he wants to express and succeeds in expressing -

though not without the use of metaphor the same thing in a more abstract language. But I was not conscious of using metaphors when I wrote the phrase though I am aware that the words could to others have that appearance. I think even that they would seem to one who had gone through the same experience, not only a more vivid, but a more realistic and accurate description of this inner state than any abstract language could give. It is true that metaphors, symbols, images are constant auxiliaries summoned by the mystic for the expression of his vision or his experience. It is inevitable because he has to express in a language made or at least developed and manipulated by the mind the phenomena of a consciousness other than the mental and at once more complex and more subtly concrete. It is this subtly concrete, this supersensuously sensible reality of the phenomena of the spiritual — or the occult — consciousness to which the mystic arrives that justifies the use of metaphor and image as a more living and accurate transcription than the abstract terms which intellectual reflection employs for its own characteristic process. If the images used are misleading or not descriptively accurate, it is because the writer has a paucity, looseness or vagueness of language inadequate to the intensity of his experience. Apart from that, all new phenomenon, new discovery, new creation calls for the aid of metaphor and image. The scientist speaks of light waves or of sound waves and in doing so he uses a metaphor, but one which corresponds to the physical fact and is perfectly applicable — for there is no reason why there should not be a wave, a limited flowing movement of light or of sound as well as of water.

But still when I speak of the mind's brightness, clearness, stillness I have no idea of calling metaphor to my aid; it is meant to be a description quite precise and positive — as precise, as positive as if I were describing in the same way an expanse of air or a sheet of water. For the mystic's experience of mind, especially when it falls still, is not that of an abstract condition or impalpable activity of the consciousness; it is rather an experience of a substance — an extended subtle substance in which there can be and are waves, currents, vibrations not physically material but still as definite, as perceptible, as tangible and controllable by an inner sense as any movement of material energy or substance by the physical senses. The stillness of the mind means, first, the falling to rest of the habitual

thought movements, thought formations, thought currents which agitate this mind-substance. That repose, vacancy of movement, is for many a sufficient mental silence. But, even in this repose of all thought movements and all movements of feeling, one sees, when one looks more closely at it, that the mind substance is still in a constant state of very subtle, formless but potentially formative vibration — not at first easily observable, but afterwards quite evident — and that state of constant vibration may be as harmful to the exact reflection or reception of the descending Truth as any formed thought movement or emotional movement; for these vibrations are the source of a mentalisation which can diminish or distort the authenticity of the higher Truth or break it up into mental refractions. When I speak of a still mind, I mean then one in which these subtler disturbances too are no longer there. As they fall quiet one can feel an increasing stillness which is not the lesser quietude of repose and also a resultant clearness as palpable as the stillness and clearness of a physical atmosphere.

This positiveness of experience is my justification for these epithets "still, clear"; but the other epithet, "bright", links itself to a still more sensible phenomenon of the subtly concrete. For in the brightness I describe there is another additional element that is connected with the phenomenon of Light well known and common to mystic experience. That inner Light of which the mystics speak is not a metaphor, as when Goethe called for more light in his last moments; it presents itself as a very positive illumination actually seen and felt by the inner sense. The brightness of the still and clear mind is a reflection of this Light that comes even before the Light itself manifests — and, even without any actual manifestation of the Light, is sufficient for the mind's openness to the greater consciousness beyond mind —just as we can see by the dawn-light before the sunrise; for it brings to the still mind which might otherwise remain just still and at peace and nothing more a capacity of penetrability to the Truth it has to receive and harbour. I have emphasised this point at a little length because it helps to bring out the difference between the abstract mental and the concrete mystic perception of supra-physical things which is the source of much misunderstanding between the spiritual seeker and the intellectual thinker. Even when they speak the same language it is a different order of perceptions

to which the language refers. The same word in their mouths may denote the products of two different grades of consciousness. This ambiguity in the expression is a cause of much non-understanding and disagreement, while even a surface agreement may be a thin bridge or crust over a gulf of difference.

I come now to the question raised by Professor Sorley, what is the relation — or rather the position of the intellect in regard to mystic or spiritual experience. Is it true as it is often contended that the mystic must, whether as to the validity of his experience itself or the validity of his expression of it, accept the intellect as the judge? It ought to be very plain that in the search, the discovery, the getting of the experience itself the intellect cannot claim to put its limits or its law on an endeavour whose very aim, first principle, constant method is to go beyond the domain of the ordinary earth-ruled and sense-ruled mental intelligence. It would be as if you were to ask me to climb a mountain with a rope around me attaching me to the terrestrial level — or as if I were permitted to fly but only on condition that I kept my feet on the earth or near enough to the safety of the ground while I do it. It may indeed be the securest thing to walk on earth, to be on the firm ground of terrestrial reason always; to attempt to ascend on wings to the Beyond-Mind ether may be to risk mental confusion and collapse and all possible accidents of error, illusion, extravagance, hallucination or what not — the usual charges of the positive earth-walking intellect against mystic experience; but I have to take the risk if I want to do it at all. The reasoning intellect bases itself on man's normal consciousness, it proceeds by the workings of a mental perception and conception of things; it is at its ease only when founded on a logical basis formed by terrestrial experience and its accumulated data. The mystic goes beyond into a region where the everyday mental basis falls away; the terrestrial data on which the reason founds itself are exceeded, there is even another law and canon of perception and knowledge. His entire business is to break out or upward or widen into a new consciousness which looks at things in a very different way, and if this new consciousness

may include, though viewed with quite another vision, the data of the ordinary external intelligence, yet it cannot be limited by them, cannot bind itself to see from the intellectual standpoint or conform to its manner of conceiving, reasoning, its established interpretation of experience. A mystic entering the domain of the occult or of the spirit with the intellect as his only or his supreme light or guide would risk to see nothing, or see according to his preconceived mental idea of things or else he would arrive only at a subtly "positive" mental realisation of perceptions already laid down for him by the abstract speculations of the intellectual thinker.

There is a strain of spiritual thought in India which compromises with the modern intellectual demand and admits Reason as a supreme judge, — but it must be a Reason which in its turn is prepared to compromise and accept the data of spiritual experience as valid per se. That is to do what the Indian philosophers have always done; for they have tried to establish by the light of metaphysical reasoning generalisations drawn from spiritual experience; and it was always on the basis of that experience that they proceeded and with the evidence of the spiritual seekers as a supreme proof ranking higher than intellectual speculation or inference. In that way they preserved the freedom of spiritual and mystic experience and allowed the reasoning intellect to come in only on the second line as a judge of the generalised metaphysical statements drawn from the experience, but not of the experience itself. This is I presume something akin to Professor Sorley's own position — for he concedes that the experience itself is of the domain of the ineffable, but he suggests that as soon as I begin to interpret it, to state it, I fall back inevitably into the domain of the thinking mind; I am using its terms and ways of thought and expression and must accept the intellect as judge. If I do not, I knock away the ladder by which I have climbed — through mind to Beyond-Mind — and I am left unsupported in the air. It is not quite clear whether the truth of my experience itself is supposed to be invalidated by this unsustained position, but at any rate it remains something aloof and incommunicable without support or any consequences for thought or life. There are three propositions, I suppose, which I can take as laid down or admitted in this contention and joined together. First, the spiritual experience is itself of the Beyond-Mind, ineffable and, it should be presumed, unthinkable. Next, — in

the expression, the interpretation of the experience, you are obliged to fall back into the domain of the consciousness you have left and so you must abide by its judgments, accept the terms and the canons of its law, submit to its verdict; for you have abandoned the freedom of the Ineffable and are no longer your own master. Last, spiritual truth may be true in itself, in its own self-experience, but any statement of it is liable to error and here the intellect is the sole possible arbiter.

I do not think I am prepared to accept any of these affirmations completely just as they are. It is true that spiritual and mystic experience carries one first into domains of Other-Mind or All-Mind (and also Other-Life and All-Life and I would add Other-Substance and All-Substance) and then emerges into the Beyond-Mind; it is true also that the ultimate Truth has been described as unthinkable, ineffable, unknowable — "speech cannot reach there, mind cannot arrive to it." But I may observe that it is so to human mind, but not to itself, since it is not an abstraction, but a superconscious (not unconscious) Existence, — for it is described as to itself self-evident and self-luminous, — therefore in some direct supramental or at least overmind way knowable and known, eternally self-aware. But here the question is not of an ultimate realisation of the ultimate Ineffable which according to many can only be reached in a supreme trance withdrawn from all outer mental or other awareness; we are speaking rather of an experience in a luminous silence of the mind and any such experience presupposes that before there is any last unspeakable experience of the Ultimate or disappearance into it, there is possible a reflection or descent of at least some Power or Presence of the identical Reality into the mind-substance. Along with it there is a modification of mind-substance, an illumination of it. — and of this experience an expression of some kind, a rendering into thought ought to be possible. Moreover an immense mass of well-established spiritual experience would have been impossible unless we suppose that the Ineffable and Unknowable has truths of itself, aspects, revealing presentations of it to our consciousness which are not utterly unthinkable and ineffable.

If it were not so, indeed, all account of spiritual truth and experience would be impossible. At most one could speculate about it, but that would be an activity very much indeed in the air and even a movement in a void, without support or data. At best, there could

be a mere manipulation of all the possible ideas of what conceivably might be the Supreme and Ultimate. For we would have nothing before us to go upon other than the bare fact of a certain unaccountable translation by one way or another from consciousness to an incommunicable Supraconscience. That is indeed what much mystical seeking actuallv held up as the one thing essential both in Europe and India. Many Christian mystics spoke of a total darkness through which one must pass into the ineffable Light and Rapture, a falling away of all mental lights and all that belongs to the ordinary activity of the nature; they aimed not only at a silence but a darkness of the mind protecting an inexpressible illumination. The Indian Sannyasins sought by silence, by concentration inwards, to shed mind altogether and pass into a thought-free trance from which, if one returns, no communication or expression could be brought back of what was there except a remembrance of ineffable existence and bliss. But still even here there were previous glimpses or contacts and results of contact of That which is Beyond; there were contacts of the Highest or of the occult universal Existence, which were held to be spiritual truths and on the basis of which the seers and mystics did not hesitate to formulate their experience and the thinkers to build on it numberless philosophies, theologies, books of exegesis or of creed and dogma. All then is not ineffable; there is a possibility of communication and expression, and the only question is of the nature of this transmission of the facts of a different order of consciousness to the mind and whether it is feasible for the intellect or must be left for something else than intellect to determine the validity of the expression or, even, of the original experience. If no valid account were possible there could be no question of the judgment of the intellect — only the violent contradiction of mind sitting down to judge a Beyond-Mind of which it can know nothing, starting to speak of the Ineffable, think of the unthinkable, comprehend the Incommunicable.

I am sorry to hear from Sarojini² that Mejdada³ has stopped sending mother's allowance and threatens to make the stoppage permanent unless you can improvise a companion to the Goddess of Purulia. This is very characteristic of Mejdada; it may even be described in one word as Manomaniac. Of course he thinks he is stopping your pension and that this will either bring you to reason or effectually punish you. But the main question is, "What is to be done now?" Of course I can send Rs 40 now and so long as I am alone it does not matter very much, but it will be rather a pull when Mrinalini⁴ comes back to Baroda. However even that could be managed well enough with some self-denial and an effective household management. But there is a tale of woe behind.

Sarojini suggests that I might bring her or have her brought to Baroda with my wife. I should have no objection, but is that feasible? In the first place will she agree to come to the other end of the world like that? And if she does, will not the violent change and the shock of utterly unfamiliar surroundings, strange faces and an unintelligible tongue or rather two or three unintelligible tongues, have a prejudicial effect upon her mind? Sarojini and my wife found it intolerable enough to live under such circumstances for a long time; how would mother stand it? This is what I am most afraid of. Men may cut themselves off from home and everything else and make their own atmosphere in strange places, but it is not easy for women and I am afraid it would be quite impossible for a woman in her mental condition.

1 Eldest maternal uncle. This letter was written to Jogendra Basu, eldest son of Shri Rajnarayan Basu and brother of Sri Aurobindo's mother.

3 Second brother (as addressed or referred to by brothers and sisters junior to him), viz. Sri Aurobindo's brother Manmohan Ghose.

Apart from these objections it might be managed. Of course I could not give her a separate house, but she might be assured that whenever a Boro Bou⁵ came, she should have one to receive her in; I daresay that would satisfy her. In case however it does not or the experiment should be judged too risky, I must go on sending Rs 40 as long as I can.

But there comes the tale of woe I have spoken of. We have now had three years of scarcity, the first of them being a severe famine. The treasury of the State is well nigh exhausted — a miserable 30 or 40 lakhs is all that remains, and in spite of considerable severity and even cruelty in collection the revenues of the last year amount simply to the tail of the dog without the dog himself. This year there was no rain in Baroda till the first crop withered; after July 5th about 9 inches fell, just sufficient to encourage the cultivators to sow again. Now for want of more rain the second crop is withering away into nothingness. The high wind which has prevented rain still continues, and though there is a vague hope of a downpour after the 15th, one cannot set much store by it. Now in case there should be a severe famine this year, what may happen is something like this; either we shall all be put on half-pay for the next twelve months, — in other words I who can only just manage to live on Rs 360 will have to do it on Rs 180 — or the pay will be cut down permanently (or at least for some years) by 25 per cent, in which case I shall rejoice upon Rs 270; or thirdly (and this may Heaven forbid) we shall get our full pay till December and after that live on the munificent amount of nothing a month. In any case it will be impossible to bring mother or even Mrinalini to Baroda. And there is worse behind. The Ajwa reservoir after four years of drought is nearly exhausted. The just-drinkable-if-boiled water in it will last for about a month; the nondrinkable for still two months more. This means that if there is no rain, there will be a furious epidemic of cholera before two months are out and after three months this city, to say nothing of other parts of the Raj, will be depopulated by a water famine. Of course the old disused wells may be filled up, but that again means cholera in excelsis. The only resource will be for the whole State to go and camp out on the banks of the Narmada and the Mahi.

5 "The eldest bride", i.e. the wife of the eldest brother in a family. The reference is obscure.

Of course if I get half-pay I shall send Rs 80 to Bengal, hand over Rs 90 as my contribution to the expenses to Khaserao⁶ and keep the remaining 10 for emergencies; but supposing the third course suggested should be pursued? I shall then have to take a third class ticket to Calcutta and solicit an 150 Rs place in Girish Bose's⁷ or Mesho's⁸ College — if Lord Curzon has not abolished both of them by that time. Of course I could sponge upon my father-in-law in Assam, becoming a ghorjamai⁹ for the time being, but then who would send money to Deoghur and Benares? To such a pass have an all-wise Providence and the blessings of British rule brought us! However let us all hope that it will rain.

Please let me know whether Mejdada has sent any money by the time this reaches you. If he has not, I suppose I must put my shoulder to the burden. And by the way if you have found my MS of verse translations from Sanskrit,¹⁰ you might send it to me "by return of post". The Seeker¹¹ had better remain with you instead of casting itself on the perilous waters of the Post-Office.

My health has not been very good recently; that is to say, although I have no recognised doctor's illness, I have developed a new disease of my own, or rather a variation of Madhavrao's¹² special brand of nervous debility. I shall patent mine as A.G.'s private and particular. Its chief symptom is a ghastly inability to do any serious work; two hours' work induces a feverish exhaustion and a burning sensation all over the body as well as a pain in the back. I am then useless for the rest of the day. So for some time past I have had to break up the little work I have done into half an hour here, half an hour there and half an hour nowhere. The funny thing is that I keep up a very decent appetite and am equal to any amount of physical exercise that may be demanded of me. In fact if I take care

6 Khaserao Jadhav, a friend of Sri Aurobindo, with whom he was staying in Baroda. In 1902 Kasherao was serving as District Collector of Baroda.

7 Friend of Sri Aurobindo's father-in-law Bhupal Chandra Bose and founder with him of the Bangabasi School and College.

10The reference is probably to Sri Aurobindo's translations from Bhartrihari. See page 24.

to do nothing but kasrat¹³ and croquet and walking and rushing about, I keep in a grand state of health, — but an hour's work turns me again into an invalid. This is an extremely awkward state of things and if you know any homoeopathic drug which will remove it, I will shut my eyes and swallow it.

Of course under such circumstances I find it difficult to write letters. I do not know how many letters to Sarojini and my wife¹⁴ 1 have begun, written two lines and left. The other day, however, there was a promising sign. I began to write a letter to you and actually managed to finish one side and a half. This has encouraged me to try again and I do believe I shall finish this letter today — the second day of writing.¹⁵ The improvement, which is part of a general abatement of my symptoms, I attribute to a fortnight's determined and cynical laziness. During this time I have been to Ahmedabad with our cricket eleven and watched them get a jolly good beating; which happy result we celebrated by a gorgeous dinner at the refreshment room. I believe the waiters must have thought us a party of famine-stricken labourers, dressed up in stolen clothes, perhaps the spoils of massacred famine officers. There were six of us and they brought us a dozen plentiful courses; we ate them all and asked for more. As for the bread we consumed — well, they brought us at first a huge toast-rack with about 20 large pieces of toast. After three minutes there was nothing left except the rack itself; they repeated the allowance with a similar result. Then they gave up the toast as a bad job, and brought in two great plates each with a mountain of bread on it as large as Nandanpahad. After a short while we were howling for more. This time there was a wild-eyed consultation of waiters and after some minutes they reappeared with large trays of bread carried in both hands. This time they conquered. They do charge high prices at the refreshment rooms but I don't think they got much profit out of us that time. Since then I have been once on a picnic to Ajwa with the District Magistrate and Collector of Baroda, the second Judge of the High Court and a still more important and solemn personage whom you may have met under the name of

13 Physical Exercise. Sri Aurobindo has written that he used to do such exercises as baithak (deep knee-bends) and dand (a sort of push-up) at Baroda.

Mr.Anandrao Jadhav.¹⁶ A second picnic was afterwards organized in which some dozen rowdies, not to say Hooligans, of our club — the worst among them, I regret to say, was the father of a large family and a trusted officer of H.H. the Maharajah Gaekwar, — went down to Ajwa and behaved in such a manner that it is a wonder we were not arrested and locked up. On the way my horse broke down and so four of us had to get down and walk three miles in the heat. At the first village we met a cart coming back from Ajwa and in spite of the carters' protests, seized it, turned the bullocks round and started them back — of course with ourselves in the cart. The bullocks at first thought they were going to do the journey at their usual comfortable two miles an hour, but we convinced them of their error with the ends of our umbrellas and they ran. I don't believe bullocks have ever run so fast since the world began. The way the cart jolted, was a wonder; I know the internal arrangements of my stomach were turned upside down at least 300 times a minute. When we got to Ajwa we had to wait an hour for dinner; as a result I was again able to eat ten times my usual allowance. As for the behaviour of those trusted pillars of the Baroda Raj at Ajwa, a veil had better be drawn over it; I believe I was the only quiet and decent person in the company. On the way home the carriage in which my part of the company installed itself, was the scene of a remarkable tussle in which three of the occupants and an attendant cavalier attempted to bind the driver, (the father of a large family aforesaid) with a horse-rope. As we had been ordered to do this by the Collector of Baroda, I thought I might join in the attempt with a safe conscience. Paterfamilias¹⁷ threw the reins to Providence and fought — I will say it to his credit — like a Trojan. He scratched me, he bit one of my coadjutors, in both cases drawing blood, he whipped furiously the horse of the assistant cavalier, and when Madhavrao came to his assistance, he rewarded the benevolent intention by whipping at Madhavrao's camel! It was not till we reached the village, after a six-miles conflict, and got him out of the carriage that he submitted to the operation. The wonder was that our carriage did not get

16 A friend of Sri Aurobindo, no doubt a relative of Khaserao and Madhavrao. He was probably the recipient of the letter of 1912 printed on pages 423-25 of Centenary Volume 27.

upset; indeed the mare stopped several times in order to express her entire disgust at the improper and turbulent character of these proceedings. For the greater part of the way home she was brooding indignantly over the memory of it and once her feelings so much overcame her that she tried to upset us over the edge of the road, which would have given us a comfortable little fall of three feet. Fortunately she was relieved by this little demonstration and her temper improved wonderfully after it. Finally last night I helped to kidnap Dr. Cooper, the Health Officer of the State, and make him give us a big dinner at the Station with a bottle and a half of sherry to wash it down. The Doctor got so merry over the sherry of which he drank at least two thirds himself, that he ordered a special-class dinner for the whole company next Saturday. I don't know what Mrs. Cooper said to him when he got home. All this has had a most beneficial effect upon my health, as the writing of so long a letter shows.

I suppose you have got Anandrao's letter; you ought to value it, for the time he took to write it is, I believe, unequalled in the history of epistolary creation. The writing of it occupied three weeks, fair-copying it another fortnight, writing the address seven days and posting it three days more. You will see from it that there is no need to be anxious about his stomach: it righted itself the moment he got into the train at Deoghur Station. In fact he was quite lively and warlike on the way home. At Jabalpur we were unwise enough not to spread out our bedding on the seats and when we got in again, some upcountry scoundrels had boned Anandrao's berth. After some heated discussion I occupied half of it and put Anandrao on mine. Some Mahomedans, quite inoffensive people, sat at the edge of this, but Anandrao chose to confound them with the intruders and declared war on them. The style of war he adopted was a most characteristically Maratha style. He pretended to go to sleep and began kicking the Mahomedans, in his "sleep" of course, having specially gone to bed with his boots on for the purpose. I had at last to call him off and put him on my half-berth. Here, his legs being the other way, he could not kick; so he spent the night butting the upcountryman with his head; next day he boasted triumphantly to me that he had conquered a foot and half of territory from the intruder by his brilliant plan of campaign. When the Boers rise once more against England,

I think we shall have to send them Anandrao as an useful assistant to Generals Botha and Delarcy.

No rain as yet, and it is the 15th of August. My thirtieth birthday, by English computation! How old we are all getting!

P.S. There is a wonderful story travelling about Baroda, a story straight out of Fairyland, that I have received Rs 90 promotion. Everybody seems to know all about it except myself. The story goes that a certain officer rejoicing in the name of Damn-you-bhai¹⁸ wanted promotion, so the Maharaja gave him Rs 50. He then proceeded to remark that as this would give Damn-you-bhai an undue seniority over Mr. Would-you-ah! and Mr. Manoeu(vre)bhai,¹⁹ the said Would-you-ah and Manoeu(vre)bhai must also get Rs 50 each, and "as Mr. Ghose has done good work for me, I give him Rs 90." The beautiful logical connection of the last bit with what goes before, dragging Mr. Ghose in from nowhere and everywhere, is so like the Maharaja that the story may possibly be true. If so, it is very satisfactory, as my pay will now be — Famine permitting — Rs 450 a month. It is not quite so good as Mejdada's job, but it will serve. Rs 250 promotion after ten years' service does not look very much, but it is better than nothing. At that rate I shall get Rs 700 in 1912 and be drawing about Rs 1000 when I am ready to retire from Baroda either to Bengal or a better world. Glory Halleluja!

Give my love to Sarojini and tell her I shall write to her — if I can. Don't forget to send the MS of translations. I want to typewrite and send to England.

I have not written to you for a long time because I have not been in very good health and had not the energy to write. I went out of Baroda for a few days to see whether change and rest would set me up, and your telegram came when I was not here. I feel much better now, and I suppose there was nothing really the matter with me except overwork. I am sorry I made you so anxious; there was no real cause to be so, for you know I never get seriously ill. Only when I feel out of sorts, I find Writing letters almost impossible.

The Maharajah has given me Rs 90 promotion — this will raise my pay to Rs 450. In the order¹ he has made me a lot of compliments about my powers, talent, capacity, usefulness etcetera, but also made a remark on my want of regularity and punctual habits. Besides he shows his intention of taking the value of the Rs 90 out of me by burdening me with overwork, so I don't feel very grateful to him. He says that if convenient, my services can be utilized in the College. But I don't see how it will be convenient, just now, at least; for it is nearly the end of the term. Even if I go to the College, he has asked the Dewan to use me for writing Annual Reports etc. I suppose this means that he does not want me to get my vacations. However, let us see what happens.

If I join the College now and am allowed the three months' vacation, I shall of course go to Bengal and to Assam for a short visit. I am afraid it will be impossible for you to come to Baroda just now. There has been no rain here for a month, except a short shower early this morning. The wells are all nearly dried up; the water of the Ajwa reservoir which supplies Baroda is very low and must be quite used up by next November; the crops in the fields are all parched and withering. This means that we shall not only

have famine; but there will be no water for bathing and washing up, or even, perhaps for drinking. Besides if there is famine, it is practically sure that all the officers will be put on half-pay. We are hoping, rather than expecting, that there may be good rain before the end of August. But the signs are against it, and if it comes, it will only remove the water difficulty or put it off for a few months. For you to come to Baroda and endure all the troubles and sufferings of such a state of things, is out of the question. You must decide for yourself whether you will stay with your father or at Deoghur. You may as well stay in Assam till October, and then if I can go to Bengal, I will take you to Deoghur where you can stop for the winter at least. If I cannot come then, I will, if you like, try and make some arrangement for you to be taken there.

I am glad your father will be able to send me a cook when you come. I have got a Maratha cook, but he can prepare nothing properly except meat dishes. I don't know how to get over the difficulty about the jhi.² Sarojini wrote something about a Mahomedan ayah,³ but that would never do. After so recently being readmitted to Hindu society, I cannot risk it; it is all very well for Khaserao and others whose social position is so strong that they may do almost anything they like. As soon as I see any prospect of being able to get you here, I shall try my best to arrange about a maid-servant. It is no use doing it now.

I hope you will be able to read and understand this letter; if you can't, I hope it will make you more anxious to learn English than you have been up to now. I could not manage to write a Bengali letter just now — so I thought I had better write in English rather than put off writing.

Do not be too much disappointed by the delay in coming to Baroda; it cannot be avoided. I should like you to spend some time in Deoghur, if you do not mind, Assam somehow seems terribly far off; and besides I should like you to form a closer intimacy with my relatives, at least those among them whom I especially love.

(2) His Highness is pleased to note that he has found Mr. Ghose a very useful and capable young man. With a little more of regularity and punctual habits he can be of much greater help; and it is hoped that Mr. Ghose will be careful in future not to injure his own interests by any lack of these useful qualities.

(3) The Minister should try to make a good use of Mr. Ghose's abilities in entrusting him with the compilation of Annual Administration Reports and other important compilations. He is a man of great powers and every use should be made of his talents.

(4) The Minister should also suggest from time to time the different uses to which Mr. Ghose's abilities can be advantageously put. The Huzur will also occasionally direct the uses to be made of Mr. Ghose's services.

(5) If convenient Mr. Ghose's services can be utilised in the Baroda College only care should be taken that his interests do not suffer in any way by his services being lent to the College for some time.

This is the order referred to by Sri Aurobindo in the letter to his wife (page 75) and also on page 10 of Centenary Volume 26 The Huzur is the Crown, i.e. the Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwar. under whom Sri Aurobindo worked for many years. From Baroda College papers, English Education Department, Huzur File, 1902-03.

15th August 1872, 24 minutes (one danda - one ghatika) before sunrise, at Calcutta.

With sunrise calculated at 5.40 a.m., the time of birth is 5.16 a.m. local time or 4.52 a.m. Indian Standard Time.¹

When attention was drawn to several press enquiries particularly in Bengal as to the exact birthplace of Sri Aurobindo, Srijut Nolinikanto Gupta, Secretary of Sri Aurobindo Ashram told P.T.I.: "Sri Aurobindo was born in the house of late barrister Monomohon Ghose, a close friend of his father, Dr. Krishna Dhan Ghose. The house was in the Theatre Road and the number being most probably 4 (Four). We are not aware whether the house still exists or not."

In or about 1879 my father moved to 4, Theatre Road. Subsequently Mr. Byomkesh Chakraborti, Bar-at-Law occupied 237, Lower Circular Road and I believe it was purchased by him. Later on late Mr. Nalini Ranjan Sirkar purchased the property and put

1 The exact time of Sri Aurobindo's birth is not known. He writes in "About Astrology" (Cent. Vol. 17, p. 288) of "the inability to fix the precise moment of my birth". The above computations were apparently made on the basis of a recollection of a member of Sri Aurobindo's family that he was born about one danda before sunrise on 15 August 1872.

up the new structure after demolishing the old. It is now occupied by the Chinese Consul General.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE OF THE AUROBINDO CENTENARY COMMITTEE HELD AT 10.30 A.M. ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1971, AT THE NATIONAL LIBRARY, BELVEDERE, CALCUTTA-27.

1. After a long discussion on the various suggestions in regard to the house in which Sri Aurobindo was supposed to have been born, it was decided as follows:

a) The arguments in favour of the present 237, Lower Circular Road could not be sustained since this was originally 12, Lower Circular Road, which came to be occupied by the late Shri Manmohan Ghose not earlier than 1876.

b) According to the Bengal Directory of 1871 and 1872. the late Shri Manmohan Ghose is shown as a resident of 48, Chowringhee which was a part of the then Ballard Building facing Theatre Road. It was, therefore, very likely that Aurobindo was born at this house, which on 15th August, 1872 was shown as the residence of the late Shri Manmohan Ghose.

c) In 1872, according to the Bengal Directory (Street Directory), No. 14 Lower Circular Road is also shown against the name of the late Shri Manmohan Ghose. But in the alphabetical list of residents of the same year, Manmohan Ghose is shown as a resident of 48, Chowringhee.

d) According to the same Directory of 1873, the late Shri Manmohan Ghose is shown as a resident of 14, Lower Circular Road, and not 12, Lower Circular Road, which is now 237, Lower Circular Road.

2. The Ballard's building consisting of numbers 47, 48, 49 and 50 at the corner of Chowringhee and Theatre Road does no longer exist: in fact, a multi-storeyed building is under construction at that place. The question of acquisition of this property does not, therefore, arise.

3. But in 1879, the late Shri Manmohan Ghose rented No. 4 Theatre Road (now No. 8 Theatre Road) and continued to live there for about fifteen years. It was in this house that Sri Aurobindo passed a number of his boyhood years from time to time; indeed it is the only house on Theatre Road with which Sri Aurobindo could be associated for a considerable period of time. The Committee, therefore, requests the Government of India and the Government of West Bengal who are now the owners of No.8 Theatre Road, to make over and dedicate this property to the nation in the name of Sri Aurobindo.

SRI AUROB1NDOS Life Divine as we know it today, with its fifty-six chapters in two books and three parts, differs considerably from the original version of the work which appeared in the monthly review Arya between 1914 and 1921. The Life Divine is, in fact, the most thoroughly and systematically revised of all Sri Aurobindo's prose works. Moreover, this revision, done mainly during 1939 and 1940, comprises the largest single body of prose material written by Sri Aurobindo after 1921, the last year of the Arya's publication. This paper is an attempt to trace the details of the revision and enlargement of The Life Divine, showing in particular how the present text differs from the original Arya version. It is based on an examination and comparison of the author's manuscripts.

An outline of the development of The Life Divine and a survey of the manuscripts.

The first instalment of The Life Divine appeared in the Arya's first issue on 15 August 1914. There is no evidence in Sri Aurobindo's manuscripts of the period that he had done any work on, or even conceived a large philosophical work before this time. Indeed, the bulk of Sri Aurobindo's writings of the period before 1914 are political and literary. "And philosophy!" he once wrote, somewhat jocularly, to a disciple, "Let me tell you in confidence that I never, never, never was a philosopher — although I have written philosophy which is another story altogether. I knew precious little about philosophy before I did the Yoga and came to Pondicherry — I was a poet and a politician, not a philosopher. How I managed to do it and why? First, because X proposed to me to co-operate in a philosophical review — and as my theory was that a Yogi ought to be able to turn his hand to anything, I could not very well refuse; and then he had to go to the war and left me in the lurch with sixty-four pages a month of philosophy all to write by my lonely self." Continuing in a more serious vein, Sri Aurobindo stated that in writing The Life Divine and the other works that appeared in the Arya, "I

had only to write down in the terms of the intellect all that I had observed and come to know in practising Yoga daily and the philosophy was there automatically. But that is not being a philosopher!"¹ Still The Life Divine is not altogether without antecedents. From around 1912 up to 1914 Sri Aurobindo was occupied with a work of Upanishadic exegesis entitled The Life Divine: A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad. There are indications that this commentary developed ("overflowed" would perhaps be a better word) into the later independent treatise; for it was in the ancient verses of the Isha that Sri Aurobindo found confirmatory expression of the secret of divine life.² Nevertheless, it can be positively stated that Sri Aurobindo did no work on The Life Divine itself before June 1914, when it was decided to publish the Arya.

Scarcely any of the press copy for the Arya version of The Life Divine has survived. The few pages that have been preserved are unruled letter-size sheets neatly written and touched up by hand. Most other surviving Arya copy is typewritten, with slight revisions added in ink. It is said that the typing was done by Sri Aurobindo himself, and that, in fact, the greater part of the Arya was written by him directly on the typewriter. It is also reported that Sri Aurobindo saw as many as seven proofs for each issue of the review. Monthly instalments of The Life Divine appeared uninterruptedly in the Arya until the series was concluded in the fifty-fourth issue of the journal in January 1919.

The only evidence of any work done by Sri Aurobindo on The Life Divine between 1919 and 1939 is an incomplete revision of many of the first twenty-seven Arya chapters done at different times, marginally and between the lines of pages torn out from the Arya. This revision, sometimes considerable, sometimes scanty, was not used by Sri Aurobindo when, after his accident of November 1938, he took up The Life Divine with a mind to bringing it out in a completely revised book form.

The revision of the two books (originally called 'volumes") of this new edition will be considered separately.

Book I of The Life Divine, "The Omnipresent Reality and the Universe", was published as "Volume I" by the Arya Publishing House, Calcutta, in November 1939. In the Arya also we find a "Book I", entitled "The Affirmations of Vedanta"; however the series runs on to its conclusion. Chapter LIII.³ without the appearance of a second book. Book I of the revised version contains the first twenty-seven chapters from the Arya, in the same order and with the same titles under which they originally appeared. To these twenty-seven is added a newly written twenty-eighth, "Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya", to complete the book.

The revision and enlargement of Book I can best be described with reference to four sets of manuscripts which seem to contain the complete history of the work. The first is a typed copy of the Arya text, the first twenty-seven chapters of which have received some revision — interestingly enough, less than the unused revised Arya pages referred to above. This revision on the typed sheets may also have been done before 1939. As will be shown below, it has been incorporated in the final text.

The second set of manuscripts is the handwritten and typewritten drafts of the new chapter (Chapter XXVIII) and of substantial additions to Chapter XIX, "Life", and Chapter XXIII, "The Double Soul in Man". The addition to Chapter XIX is a passage which runs from page 184 to page 186 of the Centenary Library text. The other new matter has replaced the Arya text of the last half of Chapter XXIII. These additions, as also the new chapter, were originally handwritten on loose sheets, and subsequently typed by a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and revised by Sri Aurobindo before being included with the rest of the text.

Practically all the revision of Book I is done directly on the galley proofs, which form the third set of manuscripts. Most of the chapters were composed by the press from the original unrevised text of the Arya, the only exceptions being Chapters XXVI, XXVII and, of course, the new passages and chapter. The revision from

3 What are actually only fifty-two chapters (in fifty-four issues); the number LIII is due to a printing error.

the bound typed sheets of the Arya text (the first set of manuscripts referred to above) were transferred to the galley proofs by a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and further revisions were added subsequently by Sri Aurobindo in his own hand.

The revision of Chapters I to XII consists of no more than a few words or marks of punctuation changed or added here and there. Chapter IX has slightly more of this type of revision than the other eleven chapters. A larger number of changes and additions of the same type appear in Chapters XIII to XVIII. Chapter XIX, besides having added to it the new passage already mentioned, has more verbal changes than the rest of the chapters of Book I. The parts of Chapter XXIII which have not been completely rewritten are only slightly revised. The remaining chapters, while they have more words and phrases added and changed than the earlier ones, may yet be considered on the whole only lightly revised.

In 1943 a second edition of the first "volume" of The Life Divine was brought out. This edition, which incorporated a few minor changes of the author, has been the text for all subsequent editions of Book I, including the Centenary Edition.

With the exceptions noted above the chapters of the revised first book of The Life Divine have remained substantially the same as they were when originally published. Even the most revised parts of the Arya chapters forming Book I are less changed than the least revised parts of those which, recast, make up Book II. This recasting will be described in the sequel.

I N PREPARING the revised edition of Sri Aurobindo's Thoughts and Aphorisms which has recently been issued, the editors checked the entire text against the author's handwritten manuscript. This notebook dates from the early years of Sri Aurobindo's stay in Pondicherry; various evidence suggests that it should be assigned to the first months of the year 1915. The manuscript appears to be a fair copy and is thus easily legible, although certain words and phrases admit some doubt and others, although clear, seem to have been reproduced incorrectly in earlier editions of the book. We give below a list of important corrections introduced in the new edition. Minor errors of capitalisation, punctuation, spelling, articles, etc. have been omitted from this list.

Aphorism Number	SABCL Page	Opening Words	For	Read

5	79	"If mankind..."	less	her
7	79	"What men call..."	After the second sentence the text should read: "Reason divides, fixes details and contrasts them; Wisdom unifies, marries contrasts in a single harmony."
12	80	"They proved..."	does	did
14	80	"Hallucination is..."	touches of the artist, — in	touches of artist in
15	80	"That which men..."	perception and superstition	perceptions. Superstition

Aphorism Number	SABCL Page	Opening Words	For	Read

18	81	"Chance is not..."	that did not conceal and dis figure a truth.	that was not the concealing and disfigurement of a truth.
43	83	"If God draw..."	upwards.	upward.
53	84	"The quarrels..."	obtain	attain
54	84	"You say..."	enters	alters
90	88	"This world was built by Ignorance..."	effulgent reason	effulgent exceeding of reason, (deleting the footnote)
98	89	"Revelation is..."	is direct or inspired	is the direct or the inspired
100	90	"Shun all..."	than the highest Kanchanjungha, profounder	than highest Kanchanjungha, be profounder
119	92	"If when thou..."	on	from
131	93	"Because God has..."	circumstance-instrument	circumstance, instrument
137	94	"There is no..."	thy	the
142	95	"Be to..."	on	in
145	96	"O Poet..."	eternal	external
151	96	"A man came..."	this instructor	his instructor

Aphorism Number	SABCL Page	Opening Words	For	Read

152	97	"When our minds..."	alone having	alone as having
160	98	"Shun the barren..."	snares of unfertile	snare of an unfertile
180	101	"There are lesser..."	really	secretly
183	101-2	"In the Buddhists'..."	is greater	is a greater
193	103	"The existence of..."	awakening Of	awakening in
198	103	"Do not dream..."	ever	even
200	104	"Religion and ..."	are best	seek
204	104	"Animal man..."	After "the present" the aphorism should read: "natural man the varied and tangled mid-road..."
205	104	The aphorism should read: "Life and action culminate and are eternally crowned for thee when thou hast attained the power of symbolising and manifesting in every thought and act, in art, literature and life, in wealth-getting, wealth-having or wealth-spending, in home, government and society, the One Immortal in His lower mortal being."
206	105	"God leads man..."	After "stumblings" the aphorism should read: "of his lower mortality; this is the tangle and contradiction out of which we have to escape into the self-unity¹ to which alone is possible a clear knowledge and a faultless action."
219	106	"Hatred is a..."	Kriya	Kritya

Aphorism Number	SABCL Page	Opening Words	For	Read

230	107	"Men slay..."	The last sentence should read: "If thou slay, first let thy soul have known death for a reality and seen God in the smitten, the stroke and the striker."
238	108	"Break the moulds..."	genius	gains
252	109	"If thou think..."	for the fight	forth to fight
273	111	"Fight, while thy..."	thy enemy's	the enemy's
280	112	"Do thy lower..."	them	thee
294	114	"There is very..."	more self-deceit	more of self-deceit
296	114	"Be not repelled..."	crookedness	crookednesses
301	115	"Private dispute..."	appreciate	appropriate²
311	116	"Fix not..."	thy	the
313	116	"Each one..."	one	man
316	116	"Fix thy soul..."	create the	create its
327	118	"India had three..."	order	orders
333	118	"A nation ...	by common	by a common
345	120	"Be always vigilant..."	reality while	reality even while
347	120	"So many strive..."	So	The

2 The manuscript clearly reads "appropriate", but this is probably a slip of the pen. "Appreciate which is apparently what was meant, is given in the new edition as a possible alternative.

Aphorism Number	SABCL Page	Opening Words	For	Read

354	121	"By altruism..."	the perdition of thy brother.	his perdition thy brother.
357	121	"The Brahmin first..."	governs by	governs us by
361	122	"Men seek laboriously..."	the bounded little being	the little bounded being
366	123	"Thou mayst be..."	wisely even	wisely and lovingly even
369	123	"The Vedanta is..."	the eternal sun-light.	a high and eternal sunlight.
378	124	"God made the..."	consent	assent
382	125	"For nearly forty..."	The first sentence should read: "For nearly forty years behind the wholly good³ I was weakly in constitution; I suffered constantly from the smaller and the greater ailments ana mistook this curse for a burden that Nature had laid upon me."
			in the body	in this body
398	127	"God within is..."	Unaffected	Unappalled
			experiment, but with	experiment, with
407	128	"Drugs cure..."	Drugs cure	Drugs often cure
410	129	"If thou pursuest..."	pursuest God	pursuest after God

3 Note that the reading of "behind the wholly good", a practically illegible phrase written between two lines, is rather doubtful. In addition "depart" in the next sentence is uncertain.

Aphorism Number	SABCL Page	Opening Words	For	Read

410	129	(This aphorism and the one that precedes it should be read as one aphorism.)
422	130	"There are four..."	fierce	fiercer
432	131	"For my part..."	away	to me
441	132	"I did my..."	command	commands
			destroyer	disturber
469	136	"Because thou wert..."	not the	not thee the
472	136	"Even the atheist..."	deniest the	deny it the
477	137	"When will the world..."	garden	gardens
487	139	"Love of man..."	To love and	So love and
493	139	"Canst thou see..."	Him in	Him seated in
			seizable	sensible
494	140	"Divine Love has..."	perennial might	personal height
495	140	"I used to..."	not suffered	not so suffered
505	141	"Service is chiefly..."	Service	Science
506	141	"O Aristophanes..."	thou watchest thyself. But wilt	thou who watchest thyself, wilt
533	145	"See God every-where..."	a truth	truth

Aphorism Number	SABCL Page	Opening Words	For	Read

535	145	"The rejection of..."	utter has	after lies
536	145	"The whole truth..."	the only	the one and only
539	146	"Atheism is the..."	form	frame