Sri Aurobindo, His Writing and "thinking"

From A. B. Purani's Evening Talks

11-12-1938 


Sri Aurobindo: That is natural peace which is more than quietude. But there is a positive peace which one knows and feels. Truth also can descend in the physical, and also Power, but very few can bear Power. Light also descends. I remember a disciple telling his Guru about the descent of Light in him. The Guru said, "The devil has caught hold of you", and from that time the disciple lost everything. There is an infinite sea of peace, ananda, above the head; if one is in contact with it one can get them always.

Disciple: Do any thoughts or suggestions come to you?

Sri Aurobindo: What do you mean? Thoughts and suggestions come to me from every side and I don't refuse them. I accept them and see what they are. But what you call "thinking" that I never do. Thinking in that sense had ceased long ago since I had that experience with Lele. Thoughts, as I said; come to me from all sides and from above and the transmitting mind remains quiet, or it enlarges to receive them. True thoughts come in this way. You can't think out such thoughts, what Mother call "mental-constructions."

Disciple: Was "Arya" written in that way?

Sri Aurobindo: No, it was directly transmitted into the pen. It is a great relief to get out of that responsibility.

Disciple: Yes, Sir?

Sri Aurobindo: I don't mean responsibility in general but that of thinking about everything. Some thoughts are given or reflected from outside. It is not that I don't ask for knowledge. When I want knowledge I call for it. The Higher faculty sees thoughts as if written on a wall.

Govind Nishar "Whither life?"

Life rushes past us unnoticed and unheeded. 
No constancy, No consistency, 
No single purpose gives it any potency. 
It's seeming permanence is a mere trickery, 
It's twinkling pleasures but starlight glimmers 
In a vast firmament of dark tragedy. 
Yet in the hidden recesses of a deepest inner secrecy 
Beyond the last threshold within the temple of the Heart 
There shines the golden key to this baffling perplexity: 
A conclusive solution to existence's mystery, 
A final response to the perennial question 
That drives in it's troubled seeking 
A haunted and possessed humanity. 
Turn within therefore while fleeting breath lingers. 
Towards that sempiternal origin hasten, 
For it is also your ultimate destiny. 
Find the Knowledge that liberates 
From this prison-house of illusion, 
And discover behind life's evanescent fantasy 
The ever-lasting Truth of your undying Reality. 


                                                               - Govind Nishar, 2004

Govind Nishar “Death is what remains of it all”

An approaching fall on the moving road of life 
Into the tenebrous nothingness of the vast unknown. 
The gaping maw of an all-swallowing black hole 
From which no life can escape, no light illuminate. 
A fearful end to a blissful illusion 
That clings to uncertain moments, oblivious of inevitable oblivion. 
An abrupt halt to a brief sojourn 
From an unknown origin to some invisible destination. 
Each step in the light takes us closer to the dark; 
Each life-giving breath takes life away. 
Unthinking, uncaring, untroubled, unaware 
Helpless sheep fattened on the green pastures of life, 
We are devoured as food by the master predator. 
Beckoned by this or that high peak of ambition 
We claw over each other only to fall forever into the pit. 
Eager to gain and possess the world 
We grasp at its gifts only to be robbed of it all. 
Born to perish and begun to end 
Life seems a fragile, vain and pointless struggle... 
When death is all that seems to remain. 

                                                               - Govind Nishar