Swami Vivekananda
- “I was wondering if you had seen or met Vivekananda somewhere.
(Sri Aurobindo:) No, not in the body. My contact with him was in the jail when he was speaking with me for about 15 days, giving me the first insight into the Intuition plane (not the intuitive mind which is mental and not supramental) as the first opening to Supermind.”[1]
- “I am thinking of reading Vivekananda. What he has said in his lectures — is it all truth, something directly inspired?
I cannot say that it is all truth — he had his own opinions about certain things (like everybody else) which can be questioned. But most of what he said was of great value.”[2]
(Sri Aurobindo letter to Motilal Roy, August 1912:) “What you say about the Ramakrishna Mission is, I dare say, true to a certain extent. Do not oppose that movement or enter into any conflict with it; whatever has to be done, I shall do spiritually, for God in these matters especially uses the spiritual means & the material are only very subordinate. Of course, you can get into that stream, as you suggest, and deflect as much as you can into a more powerful channel, but not so as to seem to be conflicting with it. Use spiritual means chiefly, will & vyapti. They are more powerful than speech & discussion. Remember also that we derive from Ramakrishna. For myself it was Ramakrishna who personally came & first turned me to this Yoga. Vivekananda in the Alipore jail gave me the foundations of that knowledge which is the basis of our sadhana. The error of the Mission is to keep too much to the forms of Ramakrishna & Vivekananda & not keep themselves open for new outpourings of their spirit, — the error of all ‘Churches’ and organised religious bodies. I do not think they will escape from it, so long as their ‘Holy Mother’ is with them. She represents now the Shakti of Ramakrishna so far as it was manifested in his life. When I say do not enter into conflict with them, I really mean “do not enter conflict with her.” Let her fulfil her mission, keeping always ours intact and ever-increasing.”[3]
- ↑ Letters on Himself and the Ashram, p.264, 21 October 1934
- ↑ Ibid., p.164, 25 September 1935
- ↑ Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, p.177
See also