1931 1931? T send you back the photos. The Mother says she does not find the Russian actress worse than others of her type, it is always from self-interest that they act and if a man like Suhrawardy1 allows himself to be tempted they will necessarily exploit him and think themselves justified in doing it. His photograph is that of a man imaginative and ardent and emotional, too passionate, excessively candid, and no doubt he has high sentiments and generous impulses. But he was likely to make mistakes in life and not to perceive the actual values or to keep his steps in the right measure. I don't know the details of his story, but, from what you say, it seems to be a common one—a con

Jaigum Preface In the Gita, Sri Krishna says to Arjuna: Yad-yad vibhuti matsatvam srimadoorjitamevava Tat-tatdevavagachha tvam mamatejomsha sambhavam (10.41) That is: "Wherever you find efflorescence of grace, Opulence, grandeur or power that thrills the heart— Know: it all derives from a gleam of my sun-splendour" (Translated by Sri Dilip Kumar Roy) Such a manifestation of sun-splendour that is Sri Aurobindo, "mighty and forceful" brought forth the flowering of grace, beauty and glorious opulence in a multifaceted form, in the life of Sri Dilip Kumar Roy—our Dadaji.1 This process is superbly documented for the first time, first hand

1929 Dilip in the 1930s A Birthday Message The divine gives itself to those who give themselves without reserve and in all their parts to the divine. For them the calm, the light, the power, the bliss, the freedom, the wideness, the heights of knowledge, the seas of Ananda. (Dilip settled in the Ashram on 22 November 1928.) June 1929 Silence can mean many other things besides consent. I do not know that I can consent to the dedication without seeing what you have written. I can read your Bengali writing very well, but I am afraid it would be difficult for me to make time, especially as you are in hurry to publish. But why all t

Correspondence 1943 February 1, 1943 I find my mind is very tough. It simply will not surrender its right of private judgment. I have been trying for a long time to get some light which will give me the clue to truer judgments. But till I get it I don’t see how I will make myself accept what seems to be impossible of acceptance. Such being the case what shall I do? Shall I leave Yoga (as impossible for such people as I whose mind is so formed) for some other walk of life or shall I stick to this? This continuous self-tussling has become very painful. I don’t know what I shall do for it seems to me that the conditions necessary to success in Yoga can never b

Correspondence 1946 April 15, 1946 I am ready to help Munshi 34 in his inner development, his sadhana if he undertakes one, in whatever way may be possible. But you know what nature of help I usually give. I can give counsel or guidance when it is necessary – through you, of course, for I cannot write personally – but usually it is through silent communication and influence, if he is receptive. From what he writes, it is apparent that he has a capacity, and it is probable that he would have made more progress if he had not shut the door that was opening. Evidently, he made a mistake when he stopped the visions that were coming. Vision and hallucina

Correspondence 1950 * January 13, 1950 I have found it difficult to understand fully from the facts and impressions written and wired by you what we are to think about Janak’s condition and her chances of outlasting the present long-continued crisis. On the one hand, there seems to be little hope and at any moment there may be the collapse and final end; on the other, there have been sometimes an appearance of improvement and a chance that her strong psychic resistance may bring her out of this terrible attack of many combined illnesses and other dangerous conditions surrounding her. But one thing we feel that so long as there is the slightest sh

Notes 1 . Kalyan Chowdury (1909-1993) son of Kumud Chowdury, a well-known hunter, studied engineering in Europe. He was a good sportsman who played cricket and tennis remarkably well and also a good shooter. His other kinsmen included General J.N. Chowdury, an ex-Chief of the Indian Army and Pramatha Chowdury, the famous writer. After joining the Ashram he taught Physics and General Science in the Ashram school as well as looking after a paddy field acquired by him for the Ashram. The tiger and leopard skins in Sri Aurobindo’s room were from Kalyan’s or his father’s collections. 2 . Surendranath Bandopadhyay (1848-1925), the great Bengali politician, had left his

Correspondence 1949 1949 To answer all the questions you raise with any point or adequacy, I should have to take up my unfinished letter and either recast it or finish it as it stands in spite of its deficiencies; for all arises from the condition of things spoken of there and depends upon it. Your own difficulties and those of the sadhaks whom you mention are due to the same cause, the pushing back of the higher mind and the higher vital and the psychic and what they have gained either into the background or behind a curtain and a domination by the difficulties of the ignorant and obstructing physical consciousness with its obscure and mistaken ideas, ha

Editorial “My appeal to you is this, that long after the Controversy will be hushed in Silence, long after this turmoil and agitation will have ceased... he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and lover of humanity. Long after he is gone, his words will be echoed and re-echoed not only in India but across distant seas and lands. Therefore I say that the man in his position is not only standing before the Bar of this Court, but before the Bar of the High Court of History” – thus said Deshbandhu C.R. Das during his peroration at the famous trial of Sri Aurobindo in Calcutta, in 1908. These prophetic words have been more than fulf

Correspondence 1947 1947 As usual you seem to have received some very fantastic and sensational reports about what you call the mill business. There was no “mill “ in question, only Subrata’s small foundry and Colombani’s equally small oil factory. Subrata was in difficulties about her affair and came to the Mother for advice and offered to sell; the Mother was prepared to buy on reasonable or even on generous terms, on certain conditions and use it, not on capitalistic lines or for any profit, but for certain work necessary to the Ashram, just as she uses the Atelier or the Bakery or the Building Department. The Ashram badly needs a foundry and the idea