CHAPTER - V SRI AUROBINDO'S LITERARY ACTIVITIES

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1 CHAPTER - V SRI AUROBINDO'S LITERARY ACTIVITIES It is infact very difficult to comment on writings of Sri Aurobindo so as to include all his literary works and on a wide variety of subjects. His writings comprise poetry, drama, political essays and speeches, illuminating literary critics on almost all famous writers of the world including, Shakespeare, Homer, Wordsworth, Valmiki, Kalidasa, Vyasa, Dante, Milton and a host of others, besides his major works on spiritual philosophy, yoga, culture, the Vedas, the Gita etc, which alone constitute over 5000 pages of printed matter. He has also translated into English a number of poems and plays written in Sanskrit and Bengali, besides writing two great epic poems in English Savitri and Ilion which are his greatest contribution to English literature in general and poetry in particular. Although it is not intended here to make a note of all his literary works only some most prominent of his works such as (i) the publication of Arya Journal (ii) The Life Divine; (iii) The Synthesis of Yoga; (iv) The Epic poem Savitri; (v) Letters to his disciples are mentioned here, which go a long way in understanding his philosophy and yoga. 1) Publication of 'Arya' Journal Publication of a Philosophical Monthly Journal by Sri Aurobindo from 1914 to 1921 from Pondicherry forms a most prominent and significant development in the history of philosophical literature in India. It is in this Journal that most of the important works of Sri Aurobindo were published serially every month, which have been printed in book form in later years. After his arrival at Pondicherry in 1910 four years were spent in silent yoga. In the year 1914 the Mother - Mirra Richard arrived at Pondicherry along with Paul Richard her husbaild on a political mission. After acquainting

2 82 themselves with Sri Aurobindo for some time it was Paul Richard who proposed to Sri Aurobindo to start the publication of a philosophical monthly journal the Arya. Thus with the active collaboration of Paul Richard and the Mother the first issue of the Journal Arya came out on August 15* 1914 Sri Aurobindo's forty second birth day. But soon both Paul Richard and the Mother had to leave Pondicherry and this formidable task of carrying out the publication of this Journal fell wholly on Sri Aurobindo. So it is highly interesting and important to know the details of publication of this journal, which is also considered as a significant proof of his tremendous yogic power. Although Paul Richard was defeated in the election, he continued to stay at Pondicherry with the Mother and to collaborate with Sri Aurobindo's works. His greatest contribution was to suggest and help in bringing out a popular philosophical Journal (Arya) monthly, which came out uninterruptedly from August 1914 to January Sri Aurobindo's all monumental works only with the exception of Savitri, were first published in this Journal as series of essays. About the Journal Sri Aurobindo wrote to Motilal Roy of Calcutta in "In this review my new theory of the Veda' will appear and also translations and explanations of the Upanishads, a series of essays giving my system of yoga and a book of Vedic philosophy (not Shankara's but Vedic Vedanta) giving the Upanishadic foundation of my theory of the ideal life towards which humanity must move, you will see so far my share is concerned, it will be the intellectual side of my work for the world".' Explaining the object of the Arya Sri Aurobindo wrote "It will be firstly a systematic study of the highest problems of existence and secondly the formation of a vast synthesis of knowledge, harmonizing the diverse religious traditions of humanity. Occidental as well as Oriental. Its object is to feel out for the thought of the future to help

3 83 in shaping its foundations and to link it to the best and most vital thought of the past." Sri Aurobindo also explained the significance of the word Arya. "The word in its original use expressed not a difference of race but a difference of culture. For the Aryan people are those who had accepted a particular type of self culture of inward and outward - practice of ideality and aspiration. Intrinsically in its most fundamental sense, 'Arya' means an effort or an uprising and overcoming. Arya is he who strives and overcomes all outside him and within him that stands opposed to the human advance. Selfconquest is the first law of his nature".2 The word was later corrupted by Hitler who made it a symbol of racial superiority and arrogance, the Aryan representing the blond Nordic race, who would be masters of the world. It was as if Sri Aurobindo anticipated the danger of such corruption and therefore wished to record the true meaning of the word. Sri Aurobindo's interpretation of the term Arya is very interesting. According to him the term Arya does not have a racial significance. Sri Aurobindo gives a spiritual interpretation to the word Arya. According to this interpretation any man belonging to any social status or nationality can be an Arya. Thus we see Sri Aurobindo's catholic outlook in his explanation after the term Arya. The word does not have any geographical significance according to him. Sri Aurobindo does not relish the distinction between the Aryans and the dasyus. According to the traditional concept Aryans were outside India and came to settle here crossing the Sindu River. The Indian natives were called the dasyus. Sri Aurobindo does not relish such a distinction which according to him is farce. Sri Aurobindo's all major works Life Divine, Secret of Veda, Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita, The Ideal of Human unity, Isha and Kena Upanishads and Psychology of Social Development, The

4 84 Future poetry, The Renaissance of India, The Foundation of Indian Cualture etc., were published serially in Arya. Poul Richard's contributions were: 1) The Eternal wisdom' a selection of finest teachings of the world seers, saints and savantas; 2) The Wherefore of the worlds' in which he commenced a fundamental enquiry into the origin and evolution of the world. The Mother helped with the translations from the Arya for the French review, took care of the accounts and maintained the list of subscribers which was two hundred to begin with and saw the two reviews through the press. But Mirra and Paul Richard had to return to France abruptly because of the war. So inspite of their deep commitments to the Arya and French reviews they were compelled to leave India on February 22nd With their departure the entire burden of brining out Arya fell on Sri Aurobindo. The French edition had to be discontinued. But there was no interruption in the publication of even a single issue of the Arya upto About the aim, the contents and philosophy of Arya Sri Aurobindo wrote, "we start from the idea that humanity is moving to a great change in life which will even lead to a new life of the race. In all countries where men think, there is now in various forms that idea and that hope and our aim has been to search for a spiritual, religious and other truth, which can enlighten and guide the race in this movement and endeavour. All philosophy is concerned with the relation between two things - the fundamental truth of existence and the forms in which existence presents itself to our experience. The deepest experience shows that the fundamental truth is truth of the spirit, the other is the truth of life, truth of form as shaping force

5 85 and living idea and action. Here the West and East have followed divergent lines. The West has laid most emphasis on truth of life and for a time came to stake its whole existence upon truth of life alone, to deny the existence of spirit or to relegate it to the domain of the unknown and unknowable; from that exaggeration it is now beginning to return. The East has laid most emphasis on truth of spirit and for a time came at least in India to stake its whole existence upon that truth alone, to neglect the possibilities of life or to limit it to a narrow development of a fixed status; the east too is beginning to return from this exaggeration. The west is reawaking to the truth of the spirit and the spiritual possibilities of life, the East is reawaking to the truth of life and tend towards a new application to it, of its spiritual knowledge."3 In Sri Aurobindo's views the antinomy created between the East and the West is an unreal one. He wrote "Spirit being the fundamental truth of existence, life can be only its manifestation. Spirit must be not only the origin of life, but its basis, its pervading reality and its highest and total result. But the form of life as they appear to us are at once its disguises and its instruments of self manifestation. Man has to grow in knowledge till they cease to be disguises and grow in spiritual power and quality till they become in him its perfect instruments. To grow into the fullness of the divine is the true law of human life and to shape his earthly existence into its image is the meaning of his evolution. This is the fundamental tenet of the philosophy of Arya."^ The Arya created a profound impression on the mind of the readers. "Annie Besant, leader of the Theosophical Movement, is said to have observed that she had seen such an afflatus in only one other - Madam Blavatsky. Dwijendranath Tagore, elder brother of the

6 86 Poet, used to say that not since the days of the Vedic hymns was such God-knowledge given to humanity."^ Most of the major writings of Sri Aurobindo came to be serialized in the Arya. There was an underlying plan. Sri Aurobindo explains: "The spiritual experience and the general truths on which such an attempt could be based, were already present to us, otherwise we should have had no right to make the endeavour at all. This truth had to be worked out first of all from the metaphysical point of view; for in philosophy, metaphysical truth is the nucleus of the rest... therefore we gave the first place to The Life Divine. It was necessary to show that these truths were not inconsistent with the old Vedantic truth therefore we included explanations from this point of view of the Veda, two of the Upanishads and Gita. But the Veda has been obscured by the ritualists and the scholiasts. Therefore we showed in a series of articles - (The Secret of the Veda, Selected Hymns etc.) - initially only as yet, the way of writing of the Vedic mystics, their system of symbols and the truths they figure. Among the Upanishads, we took the Isa and the Kena; the Gita we are treating as a powerful application of the truth of the spirit to the largest and most difficult part of the truth of life, to action, and a way by which action can lead us to birth into the Spirit and can be harmonized with the spiritual life. Truth of philosophy is of a merely theoretical value unless it can be lived, and we have, therefore, tried in The Synthesis of Yoga to arrive at a synthetical view of the principles and methods of the various lines of spiritual discipline and the way in which they can lead to an integral divine life in the human existence. But this is an individual development, and therefore, it was necessary to show too how our ideal can work out in the social life of mankind. In The Psychology of Social Development (The Human Cycle,) we have

7 87 indicated how these truths affect the evolution of human society. In The Ideal of Human Unity, we have taken the present trend of mankind towards a closer unification and tried to appreciate its tendencies and show what is wanting to them in order that real human unity may be achieved."^ Other sequences include the Defence of Indian Culture, The Future Poetry, besides writings on themes like Evolution, Karma, War and Self-Determination etc. Sri Aurobindo stopped the Journal in January 1921, after seven years and six months, not because it was not an economical proposition, it was more than paying its way, but because the human mind was not ready for further Knowledge. Besides he seems to have felt that he had put himself out too much. "This corpus of Knowledge, however, was not a product of his brain - brilliant though it was. The whole of the Arya, he recalls, was transmitted directly into his pen."^ To this opinion of Sri Aurobindo that the entire knowledge of his writings in the 'Arya' was a result of his yoga sadhana, when a disciple expressed some doubt about this socalled yogic power or the yoga Force, Sri Aurobindo explains to him very clearly in his own characteristic way by saying "How was it that I who was unable to understand and follow a metaphysical argument and whom a page of Kant or Hegal or Hume or even Berkeley left either dazed and uncomprehending and fatigued or totally uninterested because I could not fathom or follow, suddenly began writing pages of the stuff as soon as I started the Arya and am now reputed to be a great philosopher? Kindly reflect a little and don't talk facile nonsense. Even if a thing can be done in a moment or a few days by Yoga which would ordinarily take a long, "assiduous, sincere and earnest"

8 88 cultivation, that would of itself show the power of the Yoga force. But here a faculty that did not exist appears quickly and spontaneously or impotence changes into highest potency or an obstructed talent changes with equal rapidity into fluent and facile sovereignty. If you deny that evidence, no evidence will convince you, because you are determined to think otherwise."«the Mother also has explained this phenomenon in very clear terms. "Sri Aurobindo began writing the Arya in It was neither a mental knowledge nor even a mental creation which he transcribed : he silenced his mind and sat at the typewriter, and from above, from the higher planes, all that had to be written came down, all ready, and he had only to move his fingers on the typewriter and it was transcribed. It was in this state of mental silence which allows the knowledge - and even the expression - from above to pass through that he wrote the whole Arya, with its sixty-four printed pages a month. This is why, besides, he could do it, for if it had been a mental work of construction it would have been quite impossible. "9 Sri Aurobindo observes extremes in the western as well as eastern views of life. The west lays emphasis on material aspect of life at the expense of spiritual aspect of life similarly, the east stresses the importance of spirituality and ignores the material phase of life. According to Sri Aurobindo both are extremes. Both should be accorded a suitable place in the life. His is not a life denying philosophy, his is the life affirming philosophy. Materialism has its own place in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, but it should be properly guided by spirituality. Sri Aurobindo does not encourage total denial of life or self abnagation. Sri Aurobindo's philosophy may be designated as an Aryan Philosophy. By the term Arya he does not mean any geographical implications. Aryan philosophy emphasizes idealism and monism.

9 89 Though it is improper to bring Sri Aurobindo to categories under any type of traditional philosophical theories at the outset we can call him a spiritualist or an idealist. He is both an idealist as well as monist. That means the ultimate reality is of the nature of spirit and that spirit is one in nature. In this Sri Aurobindo differs from materialism and dualism. According to materialism the ultimate reality is inert in nature similarly even though in dualism, there is a place for consciousness, an equal ontological status has been accorded to inert matter in dualism. However, in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy there is no inert entity. The so called inert object is also conscious in nature, but the consciousness is not fully manifest in it. The fundamentals and the uniqueness of Indian spirituality and Indian culture and Indian thoughts were published in issues of last three years in Arya 1918 to ) The Life Divine Speaking of his magnum opus. The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo makes it clear that it is not a system of philosophy argued and formulated by the logical mind but his own experience presented in terms of the intellect. When he was once asked why, when he did not lay much store by words in the realm of spiritual experience, he wrote the bulky volume of The Life Divine, he replied that "He had to convince the modern mind and the modern mind is a rational mind necessitating a rational presentation. He does not follow the tradition of the Acharyas, stating the opponent's position first, refuting it and then proceeding to present one's own. He is content to state his approach, taking note of other approaches only to the extent it is necessary. There are no polemics in his writings".'" The Life Divine occupied the premier place in the pages of the Arya and it ran into fifty-four chapters (August 1914-January 1919).

10 90 It was nearly twenty years later that Sri Aurobindo took it up for revision. He had been obliged from November 24, 1938 by a fracture in the leg, to suspend his usual activities and at the Mother's suggestion, he started revising his earlier writings for publication in book form for which there was an insistent demand. The Life Divine was the first major work that he took up for revision. The first volume bore comparatively few revisions, though he added a new chapter on the Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya at the end. He gave a sub-title to the volume : Omnipresent Reality and the Universe. And it appeared in November The second volume, however, was subjected to thorough revision; many of the chapters were recast and enlarged and twelve chapters written anew. It is one of his most thoroughly revised works. It appeared in July 1940 with the subtitle: the Knowledge and the Ignorance - the Spiritual Evolution. Being the main metaphysics of his system. The Life Divine' has been widely read and it has been prescribed for study in many of the Universities in India. It is being used in some Universities in other countries also. It has undergone many printings and has been translated into several languages, Indian and foreign. "The philosophy presented in this voluminous work may be described as a realistic Advaita, Integral Realism. For Sri Aurobindo conceives of the Supreme Reality as an Absolute which, when turned to manifestation, reveals itself as Sat-Chit-Ananda, Existence- Consciousness-Bliss. This Reality manifests the Universe out of its own Being. What is manifested is as real as what manifests it. The manifestation is not a sudden jump from the Reality that is Divine, that is to say, perfect. There is a graded devolution, the Consciousness becoming more and more self-limited, less and less subtle, till it culminates in the inconscience of Matter. At each level of the descent, planes of Consciousness are formed, each with its

11 91 special character based upon its particular principle. Sri Aurobindo's classification of these planes correspond to the seven planes of the Vedic system : Sat, Existence; Chit, Consciousness; Ananda, Bliss; Vijnana, Gnosis; Manas, Mind; Prana, Life; Anna, Matter. This is an ordered universe, a Cosmos, with its several planes and worlds interacting. If devolution is the course of the descent of the Reality into material form, evolution is the way in which its manifestation takes place gradually. Every form in creation has a divine spark which is developing in consciousness till it becomes the soul in the human and thereafter it enters into a new stage of conscious evolution. Karma, Rebirth and progression are the necessary corollaries of the upward movement from Matter of Life, from Life to Mind, from Mind to the Divine Mind (Supermind) and from there to Sat-Chit-Anand. The human today is in the throes of a new birth from the Mind into the Supermind. The mental being is being replaced by the supramental consciousness. When this inevitable step is taken and the Truth-Mind begins to function in the human, a new era of freedom of the spirit, universalisation of consciousness and transformation of life will mark the beginnings of Life Divine. That is the next goal."" Sri Aurobindo discusses all these issues and traces the long course of this evolution, the stages that have marked the ascent of the emerging consciousness, the part played by Religion, Mysticism, Occultism, Reason, Science, Intuition, the various Theories of Knowledge, the movement from Sevenfold Ignorance to Sevenfold Knowledge, and the direction in which Nature is being precipitated by the pressure of the manifesting Spirit. He concludes :

12 92 "If there is an evolution in material nature and if it is an evolution of being with consciousness and life as its two key terms and powers, this fullness of being, fullness of consciousness, fullness of life must be the goal of development towards which we are tending and which will manifest at an early or later stage of our destiny. The Self, the Spirit, the Reality that is disclosing itself out of the first inconscience of life and matter would evolve its complete truth of being and consciousness in that life and matter. It would return to itself - or, if its end as an individual is to return into its absolutes, it could make that return also, - not through a frustration of life but through a spiritual completeness of itself in life, our evolution in the ignorance with its chequered joy and pain of self-discovery, and worlddiscovery, its half-fulfilments, its constant finding and missing, is only our first state. It must lead inevitably towards an evolution in the Knowledge, a self-finding and self-unfolding of the Spirit, a selfrevelation of the Divinity in things in that true power of itself in Nature which is to us still a Supernature."'2 3) The Synthesis of Yoga If The Life Divine gives the principles of the spiritual evolution that is to bring about the Kingdom of God upon earth, the Synthesis lays down the Way to translate these truths into practice. And that Way is Yoga. Yoga, according to Sri Aurobindo, is practical psychology and he takes a bird's eye view of the main lines of Yoga as they have been developed. "After a preliminary survey of the principles of Yoga in general and an examination of the methods of Nature in so far as they provide the proto-type for yoga-processes, he studies the contributions of the three major lines of Yoga, trimarga, the Yogas of Work, Knowledge and Devotion, karma, jnana and bhakti. He

13 93 indicates where each of them meets the others in the course of its development. He also expounds, briefly, the principles of the Hatha and the Raja Yoga and underlines their limitations. After this he proceeds to work out his own Yoga of Self - Perfection which assimilates the fundamentals of the past yogic effort and extends their range to reach the whole of the human being. Step by step, he takes up each part of the being and draws the lines on which it is to evolve towards perfection in its divine term. Side by side, he underlines the need for integration of each advance with the development of others. He examines the different aspects of the Divine Reality viz., the Personal, the Impersonal, the Static, the Dynamic etc., and shows their relevance to the need of the evolving human spirit. He describes the fourfold personality of the Soul and the answering truths in the manifestation of the Divine Shakti. He relates the Upanishadic koshas sheaths or 'bodies' of the individual to corresponding planes of consciousness in the cosmos and works out their equation through the development of his Integral Yoga. He built the ladder of ascent above the highest levels of the thinking mind to still higher levels of the Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, Overmind and Supermind in its'various gradations. He was still developing his yogic insights and sketching out the routes on the dizzying heights of the supramental Time and Space, when the Arya ceased publication. He had written on this subject from the first to the last issue, yet the work remained incomplete. He had hoped to complete it and revise wherever necessary. But that was never done. Only the first part, The Yoga of Divine Works, was thoroughly revised and published in book form in The second part. The Yoga of Integral Knowledge was also revised but in portions. The rest was not touched. This body of knowledge on the

14 94 theory and practice of Yoga in its multiple bearings, immense potentialities and graded application is among the most authentic manuals on the subject. If only the author had completed it to his satisfaction, it would have been a veritable Veda of Yoga. The entire work was published for the first time in book form in the revised and the unrevised portions together - and it constitutes the most comprehensive work of Sri Aurobindo on Yoga."'^ 4) Sri Aurobindo's Epic Poem 'Savitri* Sri Aurobindo has indeed given a new turn to the thinking of the world, and has symbolised, in his own thought and action, a new dimension of living. While he has written a large number of books on great variety of subjects, there are two of them which stand out preeminently, for both clarity and originality. These are the Life Divine and Savitri. These two books give a clear exposition of his philosophy of life. While in the first, we see Sri Aurobindo as a great occult scientist, in the second, we meet him as a mystic of Mystics, using the medium of exquisite poetry to convey to humanity his deep and profound experiences of spiritual life. Thus Life Divine and Savitri are complementary to each other. Sri Aurobindo was both a Manishi and a Kavi, an intellectual genius and a sensitive poet at the same time. The epic of Savitiri revelas to us Sri Aurobindo soaring into great heights of intellectual and occult understanding of man and the universe. While occult science deals with the superphysical structure of the evolutionary drama of Man and the Universe, in Mysticism one comes across the very content of spiritual life, unfettered by the limitations of one's normal consciousness. In a mystic approach one is indeed concerned with an Expansion of Consciousness, and not just with an exten^pn of it. In Sri Aurobindo's Savitri, we have the story, told in ejjquisite poetry, of man's journey into new dimensions

15 95 of consciousness. It speaks of the Ascent of Man and the Descent of the Divine. While the Ascent of Man has its limitations, the Descent of the Divine has no limits whatsoever. It has no frontiers, whether of range or content, forming a boundary. Man must ascend as far as his powers and capacities can lead him, and, from there, call out to the Divine to descend. It is this which constitutes the Yoga of Ascent and the Yoga of Descent so beautifully described by Sri Aurobindo in his Savitri. It was probably at Baroda (long before his coming over to Pondicherry) that Sri Aurobindo first thought of writing a long poem based on the well known story of Savitri and Satyavana from Mahabharata. The earliest draft is traced back to as early as August It began as 'a Tale and a Vision'. Sri Aurobindo used to work on the poem whenever he could find time. In its early version the entire work did not exceed fifty typed pages, but in its final form the epic contains almost lines. There were constant revisions and retouching, excisions and additions and some times entire passages would be recast again and again until he was fully satisfied. He aimed at 'A perfect perfection' as he himself has said.''' Sri Aurobindo explains that "He wrote the poem for himself. He used it in the manner of the vedic Rishi using the mantric utterance for the ascension of his consciousness. He revised it from each successive level of consciousness he attained, so that certain portions are said to have received as many as twenty revisions. The result is a rare perfection. It is his testament to humanity, the Life Divine in poetry."15 He could only finally complete it 1950 the year he had to leave his physical body. A brief note on Savitri as a means of sadhana in Sri Aurobindo's yoga is given in chapter X.

16 96 5) Sri Aurobindo's letters to his disciples Sri Aurobindo's letters to his disciples form a very important part of Aurobindonian literature. He received thousands of letters and a very large portion of his time was devoted to answering them. They cover almost every subject which touches human life- God, Nature, Man, Planes and Parts of the being. Meditation, Hathayoga, the Tantras, Sleep and Dreams, Mind, Intuition, Illness, Visions, Art, Literature, Work as Sadhana, Occult Knowledge, Brahmacharya, Food, Destiny, Karma, Rebirth, Literary Criticisms, Culture, World Affairs, Social Problems, Guidance in writing Poetry, Money, Supramental Transformation, etc., His philosophy of "All life is Yoga" includes all activities in its integral vision. "^ Sri Aurobindo's innumerable letters written to his disciples during his total seclusion from 1926 onwards, constitute a treasure house of knowledge and a practical guide to all the spiritual seekers in general and the Sadhaks in the line of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga in particular. These letters helped the disciples to face their problems and to define their questions and this also served to break down the barriers they sometimes created between themselves and the Guru, especially when their personal contact with Sri Aurobindo was not possible for so many years. Through his replies Sri Aurobindo sent his Force and Light and the letters were the means or channels of his direct help to the disciples in their practice of yoga. It is said that between 1930 and 1938 Sri Aurobindo had to devote a considerable part of his time to these correspondences and sometimes he would spend eight to nine hours mostly during night, writing letters to the disciples. Both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother encouraged the disciples to write freely and regularly about their difficulties and problems in sadhana and to raise other questions which vexed or perplexed them. In replying to letters on sadhana Sri Aurobindo

17 97 usually consulted the Mother, as she was more directly in touch with the sadhaks; each reply was directed to the inner need of the sadhak and was in accordance with his capacity to understand. To those with strong intellectual bent of mind and where the questions raised were of general importance, his replies would run into several pages and provided illuminating answers which reflected his vast knowledge and integral vision. Prominent amongst these are correspondences with Nirodbaran, K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Dilip Kumar Roky, K.D. Setna, Amal Kiran, Nolini Kant Gupta, Nagin Doshi etc., K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar calls the years from 1933 and 1938 as "the golden years of his yogic correspondences","^ when he used to write at least 10 hours a day. KR. Srinivasa leyngar writes in his biographyof Sri Aurobindo "we are indebted to those years for the 4000 letters to Dilip Kumar Roy, the three volumes of correspondences with Nagin Doshi and ample exchange of letter with K.D. Setna as well as for the numerous letters to so many others."'* And correspondences with Nirodboran comprise 1200 printed pages. As mentioned earlier, many of Sri Aurobindo's letters have been gathered in three volumes of the centenary Edition of his collected works under the title 'Letters on Yoga', which constitute the most complete presentation of his yoga as given to others. But it is wonder that how was this possible at all. Even amidst his total isolation and amidst intense spiritual practice how could he devote so much time every day constantly for many years for writing these innumerable letters. "But the truth was that he very often wrote in a state of trance. No matter how incredible it may sound, while he was penning those letters about all kinds of subjects imaginable, he was inwardly occupied with other things elsewhere in this world or in other worlds and probably often in the person or situation to whom or about whom he was writing. His hand writing is in many cases clearly a trance - hand writing, at the

18 98 time decipherable by only a very few and best of all by Nolini kantha Gupta, who had the privilege of distributing the heavenly mail in the morning. Sri Aurobindo has written himself :- "It does not mean that I lose the higher consciousness while doing the work of correspondence. If I did that I would not only be not supplemental but would be very far even from the full yogic consciousness."''' One can imagine the immensity of these letters, most importeint of which have been published in Book form in three entire volumes with a total of over 1800 printed pages and on a vide verity of subjects and yet hundreds of letters remaining unpublished. To conclude about Sri Aurobindo's literary activities "Three aspects stand out as common factors in all the writings of Sri Aurobindo : his great command of the English language; the inspiration through a silent mind after January 1908; and his integral or spiritual approach to everything. As far as the variety of subjects covered is concerned, he proved his theory that a Yogi can turn his hand to anything. His writings are a constant inspiration, whether on matters political or spiritual, in prose or in verse. A Yogi who writes is not a literary man for he writes only what the inner Will and Word want him to express, says Sri Aurobindo. This can be said of all his writings. 'All things are possible in Yoga,' as the Master himself said. ' I am supposed to be a philosopher, but I never studied philosophy; everything I wrote came from Yogic experience, knowledge and inspiration. So too my great power over poetry and perfect expression was acquired in these last days, not by reading and seeing how other people wrote, but from the heightening of my consciousness and the greater inspiration that came from the heightening. "20