Life - Poetry - Yoga: Volume 3

     The first two of the projected "row of volumes" of Amal Kiran's Personal Letters on Life – Poetry – Yoga were reviewed in this Newsletter, July 1995. The third, no less rich and varied, has a few letters of special importance. There are statements throwing light not only on his personal letters but on works like his valuable Talks on Poetry. What he says on his personal letters could henceforth be printed on the front leaf of all the succeeding volumes, even on that of the first three volumes when they are reprinted:
      "I try to write – no matter how small the subject – from my own depths and strive to find a trysting place in others' inmost being. The thoughts may wear an ordinary look and the words sound casual but the intent is from the Divine Mother in me to the same shining secret in my correspondent."

     The remark of his is Talks on Poetrynot wholly irrelevant to our purposes as we shall presently see:
      "The book is meant not only to make poetry come out alive but also to make life catch something of poetry's perfection of revelatory rhythm on the diverse planes of consciousness."

     What makes the three published volumes of the letters as well as the volumes to follow – though in Amalian style we could note that the third volume is not handsomely bound like the first two – is clearly seen in the statement quoted first: It is more than Wordsworthian "natural piety" or piety to the Presence in Nature. What makes the volumes "bound each to each is the Supreme Presence, one could say, Transcendental Nature or Para Prakriti that has taken flesh and blood to transform our humanity into divinity. Amal calls it the shining secret in each person. All the volumes are bound each to each also by the integration of not only poetry and life that is hinted in his statement on Talks on Poetry but Life, Poetry and Yoga.

     There are also recurring topics in the three volumes: not only Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Savitri and the Master's other master-pieces, Amal's own magic and music in verse but also topics like astrology, interpretation of dreams etc…. The letters to the same astrologer in the earlier and later volumes bringing in the subject of "godlings" and the worship of Gods and Goddesses by those who follow Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is dealt with in two letters in the volume under review. Amal also refers with contempt to the ordinary religious practices as "old world foibles". He particularly refers to Champaklal's wearing the sacred thread. With apologies to Amal it could be said that on Champaklal's body the thread really looked sacred. Also, Amal is not right in saying that only Brahmins wear the thread. Arya Vaishyas and many others do it. Among other details recurring in the third volume is Amal's wife accompanying him to Pondicherry on his first visit, comment on her Western garment and Mother's remark thereon.

     What makes the third volume of special interest, as noted at the start, is the inclusion of certain important letters like those to K.M. Munshi, a leading Indian intellectual, who, in his own way has tried to contribute to the propagation of Indian culture. Amal's correspondence with Mr. Munshi reveals the truth that an intellectual, however sincere, is ineffectual in the matter of understanding and interpretation of an extraordinary individual like Sri Aurobindo. Munshi tries to dismiss Amal's praise of Sri Aurobindo in superlative terms as being natural to a devotee. But Amal shows a devotee need not be blind and unreasoning. Amal shows convincingly in what sense Sri Aurobindo is unique not only in the field of spirituality but even in the sphere of politics. Sri Aurobindo left politics not because he could not lead India to Freedom but because he had a divine Adesh to take up spiritual work. Amal also tells Munshi in what way Sri Aurobindo is an Avatar.

     Of special significance is a subject dealt with in two letters to the followers of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. A passing remark of the Mother's misunderstood by a disciple leads to the wrong assumption that Sri Aurobindo's Yoga of transformation could be practised without a Guru. Amal points out that the Mother never meant it.

     A number of letters on Sri Aurobindo's Yoga to correspondents in various stages of development from the beginners and even those who are contemplating to begin practising it to those in an advanced stage make the volume exceedingly valuable. The present volume makes us eagerly look forward to the next and the succeeding ones.

— K. B. Sitaramayya
Retired Professor
Annamalai University

April 1999