Act VI, Scene 8
(Calcutta. Aurobindo’s residence. Aurobindo and Sudhir Sarkar, a young revolutionary and a great admirer of Aurobindo, living as a member of his family.)AUROBINDO: Can you do one thing for me?
SUDHIR: Certainly. Please tell me what.
AUROBINDO: Take this note to Sundari Mohan Das. Just read it.
SUDHIR (reads aloud): “The bearer is my friend, Sudhir. Kindly give him your opinion by word or in writing.” (Turning towards Aurobindo.) I am not your equal. How on earth could I ever be called your friend? In learning, in intelligence and in age, in what respect am I your equal?
AUROBINDO: Why can’t you be my friend? You love the country, so do I. Our ideal is one. So we are friends.
(Young Sudhir has the first taste of the humility of the great, and his admiration for Aurobindo grows a hundredfold.)
Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, The Descent of the Blue, Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse, 1972
