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Letter
to Anandarao
[June, 1912?]
Dear Anandarao,
My Bengal correspondent writes to me that you have sent me the following
message, "The Baroda friend has left service and therefore there is
difficulty in finding money. He asks, now you have become a Sannyasin, on what
ground he can collect money. Still, if you let him know clearly your future, the
time it will take to effect your Siddhi and the amount of money you need, he
will try to collect from Rs.600 to 1000."
I cannot understand why on earth people should make up their minds that I
have become a Sannyasin! I have even made it clear enough in the public Press
that I have not taken Sannyasa but am practising Yoga as a householder, not even
a Brahmacharin. The Yoga I am practising has not the ghost of a connection with
Sannyasa. It is a Yoga meant for life and life only. Its object is perfection of
the moral condition and mental and physical being along with the possession of
certain powers, – the
truth of which I have been establishing by continuous practical experiment, -
with the object of carrying out a certain mission in life which God has given
me. Therefore there is or ought to be no difficulty on that score. If I were a
Sannyasin, there would indeed be no money difficulty to solve.
The question about the Siddhi is a little difficult to answer precisely.
There are four parts of the Siddhi, roughly, moral, mental, physical and practical.
Starting from December 1908, the moral has taken me three years and a half
and may now be considered complete. The mental has taken two years of regular
Sadhana and for the present purpose may be considered complete; the physical is
backward and nearing completion only in
the
immunity from disease, -
which I am now attempting successfully to
perfect and test by exposure to abnormal conditions. The physical also does not
matter so much for practical purposes, as the moral, mental and a certain number
of practical
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Siddhis are sufficient. It is these practical
Siddhis that alone cause delay. I have had first to prove to myself their
existence and utility, secondly to develop them in myself so as to be working
forces, thirdly to make them actually effective for life and impart them to
others. The development will, I think, be complete in another two months, but
the application to life and the formation of
my helpers will take some time, -
for the reason that I shall then have a
greater force of opposition to surmount than in the purely educative exercises I
have hitherto practised. The full application to life will, I think, take three
years more, but it is only for a year of that time (if so long) that I expect to
need outside assistance. I believe that I may have to stay in French India for
another year. I presume that is what the question about my future means. But on
this point also I cannot speak with certainty. If, however, it refers to my
future work, that is a big question and does not yet admit of a full answer. I
may say briefly that I have been given a religious and philosophical mission, to
re-explain the Veda and Vedanta (Upanishads) in the ancient sense which I have
recovered by actual experience in Yoga and to popularise the new system of Yoga
(new in arrangement and object) which has been revealed to me and which, as I
progress, I am imparting to the young men staying with me and to others in
Pondicherry. I have also to spread certain ideas about God and life by literary
work, speech and practice, to try and bring about certain social changes and,
finally, to do a certain work for my country in particular, as soon as the means
are put in my hands. All this to be done by God’s help only and not to be begun
till things and myself are ready.
.
The amount of money I shall need for
the year in question are Rs. 300 to clear up the liabilities I have contracted
during the last nine or ten months (in which I have had only fortuitous help)
and some Rs. 1200 (or 1500, reckoning up to August 1913) to maintain myself and
those I am training. I had hoped to get the money from a certain gentleman who
had promised me Rs. 2000 a year for the purpose and given it for the first year
from October 1910 to October 1911. But there are great difficulties in the way
and I can no longer reckon merely on this support which would have made it
unnecessary for me to tax my friends. Please ask
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my friend if, with this explanation, he can
manage the money to the amount suggested. If
I get other help from this side, I shall let him know so that the sum be
lightened.
At present I am at the height of my difficulties, in debt, with no money
for the morrow, besieged in Pondicherry and all who could help are in temporary
or permanent difficulties or else absent and beyond communication. I take it,
from my past experiences as a sign that I am nearing the end of the period of
trial. I would ask you if you can do no more, at least to send me some help to
tide over the next month or two. After that period for certain reasons, it will
be easier to create means, if they are not created for me.
A.
G.
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