Prabartak (journal)
(Sri Aurobindo letter to Motilal Roy, 1916-1918:) “What has become of the “Pravartaka”. The last number was very good, but for a long time we have had no other. Is the administration withholding visa or are there other reasons for the irregularity? I hope it is not a discontinuance. We have the “Arya” here visaed without delay or difficulty.
If you have difficulties of any kind, it is as well to let me know at once; for I can then concentrate what force I have more particularly to help you.”[1]
(Sri Aurobindo to Motilal Roy, end 1919:) “As to articles for the Prabartak, Nalini used to be your mainstay and he is now in another atmosphere, — mainly hitherto of marriage and football, and complains of an inability to write. … Moni’s inspiration flows in channels hardly suitable for the Prabartak. As for myself, it was only as a result of a solitary inspiration and with much trouble of rewriting that I got one thing done for you...
Bengali writings translated into English
“The Chariot of Jagannath”
Since then I have been too much occupied by my Yoga and not at all visited by any preranâ or at least none which lasted long enough to produce more than a few lines. In this matter I am entirely dependent on the যথা নিযুক্তোস্মি, as I have no natural control of the language and I have no time at present for increasing it by constant practice. It seems to me that Prabartak is getting on well enough as it is, though, if Nalini could write, it would produce an element of greater variety. You should be able to develop more writers with the necessary spiritual experience, grasp of the thought and literary ability, — these things the inner Shakti can bring to the surface if it is called upon for them, — so that Prabartak will not have to depend on three or four people only for its sustenance.
... By the way, with regard to your design for the paper, the only thing that now suggests itself to me is the Hansa in the Sun, i.e. the free Soul lodged in the vijñâna, and the legend “In this sign thou shalt conquer,” which is appropriate, but has the disadvantage of being borrowed from Christianity and Constantine. It would perhaps be better if you could find a Sanscrit equivalent or substitute.
K.”[2]
(Sri Aurobindo to Motilal Roy, May 1920:) “Barin has taken up the “Narayan” with the idea of gradually and eventually making it another instrument of propaganda for our ideas, and if he succeeds, that will be so much the more strength for us. It will not be a mere doubling of the work of the Prabartak, as it will present our ideas in a different way and so as to catch minds of a different type from those who are naturally attracted by the Prabartak which demands from its readers a mind already turned to spiritual things or at least naturally able to enter into that atmosphere. To others who are of a less spiritual and intuitive, a more intellectual or literary and artistic temperament, the articles of the Prabartak written out of an experience to which they are strangers, are not easily assimilable, and it is these minds which it may be possible to approach through the “Narayan”. But if there is not a right understanding, the attitude of the two to each other may be that of separation and competition rather than of activities supplementary to each other in the same work.”[3]
- ↑ Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, p.227
- ↑ Ibid., p.232
- ↑ Ibid., p.235
See also