Ауробиндо

Conversation with Professor Hopkins. July 13, 1975, Philadelphia

Prof. Hopkins: What is your view of Sri Aurobindo? [loud laughter] Or should I have left well enough alone? He is not an impersonalist. He's not a Mayavadi.

Prabhupada: He says that above the Mayavada philosophy there is something else, super. That is bhakti. He is aiming at bhakti. But he could not understand because he did not take any education from realized person. He wanted to realize himself. That is his defect.

Prof. Hopkins: So one who... You would see his effort to transcend, I suppose you would call it...

Prabhupada: That effort will go on for life after life. Then, when his effort will be successful, he will realize Krsna. Vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma su-durlabhah. Bahunam janmanam ante [Bg 7.19].

Prof. Hopkins: So his problem was the effort to attempt to do this on his own, without going through...

Prabhupada: The guru.

Prof. Hopkins: ...the guru.

Prabhupada: Therefore it will take time. Just like a man searching after the right path, but if he does not care to ask anybody, he is loitering in the forest.

Prof. Hopkins: You... I'm sure you're familiar with his essays on the Gita...

Prabhupada: Yes. Divine Life.

Prof. Hopkins: ...which I think are generally quite good, his essays on the Gita themselves. Are there places there that you would strongly disagree with in his..., what he says?

Prabhupada: No, we disagree with the whole system, because he is trying to understand the Absolute Truth by his own effort. That is not possible.

Prof. Hopkins: So you would say, then, that no matter... He may have the right idea, but he has not..., he has not...

Prabhupada: He may be a great thoughtful man, but not a realized soul.