September 1937 I send you the letter of a diabetic sadhak asking me if he can take rice once a day. I can only pass on the question to you. What shall I reply to his piteous and pathetic request? For enlightenment, Please. September 1, 1937 Guru, I hope you won't call this a Victorian, sentimental, romantic poem and make me crush my bones by a fall from the sky of ecstasy! Nothing of that kind in it. Your bones are safe this time. September 4, 1937 ... By the way, you haven't returned my medical report book. Mother says it is not there! How? I sent it last night! Forgot to shove it in. Afterwards it got covered with othe

May 1938 "I have seen in thy white eyes A spark unknown,..." White eyes = eyes without pupils which would be rather terrifying. By the way, yesterday while meditating, I saw clearly that you wrote "excellent" for yesterday's poem1 — almost the same as "exceedingly fine". This is the third or fourth time I had such a prevision. Some faculty growing, Sir? Or a coincidence? "Coincidence" is a quack scientific word which like many such words states the fact that two things coincide (here your prevision and my opinion coincide) but does not explain the fact— If a man sees a snake in dream in the night and each time crosses one in the day, that would be a

NIRODBARAN'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH SRI AUROBINDO The Complete Set Nirodbaran's Correspondence with SRI AUROBINDO THE COMPLETE SET VOLUME TWO SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM, PONDICHERRY First Complete Edition 1984 Second Complete Edition 1995 © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1984 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Publication Department Printed at All India Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

June 1937 "Sitting alone under the shade of the tree Wrapt in a hushed profundity of night. A tree gives shade in the day — here it is night when all is shade! Please change. I was struck by R's sonnet! By Jove, looks like a sheer genii — I mean genius, what? Perhaps both — genii producing genius. [The following question was put by J:] What is the best way to get to the source of epic poetry and have it securely established? One has to grow into it — there is no other way. Once the epic inspiration has opened, this growth is possible and, if the inspiration is sustained, fairly certain. Arjava has fever again. H

May 1937 Shall go tomorrow to enquire about P's operation . . . I think it would be better to see it again on the screen tomorrow evening, for the needle may have shifted. Yes. Why do these things — tooth trouble etc., come to the Mother? I hear that you throw them off very quickly when they try to come to you. The Mother could do the same. I have not to deal with the sadhaks—except through correspondence. I am feeling feverish, cold in the head, bad headache. Due to sea bath and diving? What a pity! Pains of pleasure, I suppose. Which is better: "To a motionless abode —intense hushed seas"? or "of deep hushed seas"?

July 1936 S is much better, feels happy. I forgot to write that jaundice usually takes 2-3 weeks. So I understood, even a month. N.P. is dying more of fear, and thinking if he does this or that the pain may come back! That is why these things continue with him. What about my private book or J's letters? Can't you send them? Not as yet. Could not make up arrears. Today X seemed quite sane. So you see, Sir, after all it is your help that pulled her up. Of course as soon as you wrote I put the shower-bath on her. [About J's novel:] If you say that she'd better follow what Y says, she is willing to do so. Her jury

SRI AUROBINDO "I am here, I am here! " by NIRODBARAN SRI AUROBINDO "I am here, I am here! "   WHEN all over the world there was a growing eagerness to know more and more about Sri Aurobindo and the interest in his work was on the increase, he suddenly disappeared from the earth-scene. Superficially, this is a terrible irony of fate. But a study of his life suggests that more than once the utterly unexpected occurred as if by a choice on his own part. One may say that such an occurrence is almost a regular feature at each decisive turn of the upward spiral of his life. We see the rising curve bending down of a sudden when he threw away the I. C. S. career after a brill

APPENDIX SRI AUROBINDO ON WRITING IN ENGLISH AND ON STYLE IN WRITING As in these Talks there are remarks by Sri Aurobindo on Indians writing in English and on literature in general, it will be both interesting and instructive to quote a few passages from his letters to poet-discples apropos of these themes. 1 Indians have naturally in writing English a tendency to be too coloured, sometimes flowery, sometimes rhetorical.... One ought to have in writing English a style which is at its base capable of going to the point, saying with a simple and energetic straight-forwardness what one means to say, so that one can add grace of language wi

29 JANUARY 1940 Later, after Purani had come, there was an expectation that Nirodbaran would ask a question. All were looking at one another. The situation was so funny that Nirodbaran burst into laughter. PURANI: Nirodbaran is on the point of asking some question. SRI AUROBINDO: Is it a formidable question? NIRODBARAN: Oh, no. But did you say in the morning that the female element Krishnaprem speaks of corresponds or is equivalent to love, devotion, etc.? SRI AUROBINDO: No, I didn't say that. Why should it be so? SATYENDRA: Yes, why? Doesn't Sachchidananda have love! NIRODBARAN: As Krishnaprem speaks of the Vaishnavas' self-ide

25 FEBRUARY 1940 SRI AUROBINDO: That is a different matter. Each one will of course receive in his own language. An Englishman won't receive in Bengali or Gujarati. That depends on the response of the mind, the vital being or whatever it may be . About Ahimsa (non-violence), animals feel if a person is really non violent or not and they approach person according to that feeling. But what I want to know is whether Jainism accepts any intermediary such as a Guru who helps a disciple in the spiritual path. There are religions like Buddhism who don't believe in such things. Buddhism strongly says that one has to rely on one's own effort. Nobody can help one. By t