On prophecies

Q: When will you be cured?

I can’t say and, even if I could, the hostile forces would at once rush up to prevent the cure. That is why I don’t want to prophesy about anything. Not that things are not known beforehand or possibilities not seen. There are things about which I have definitely pronounced in advance. But where it is a question of possibilities, I don’t tie myself down to any; for if I do that, I commit myself in advance to certain lines of movement and the result of them may not be what I wanted.

Consequently I would not be able to bring down what I was striving for. But plenty of people can prophesy and among Yogis that capacity is very common. When I was arrested, my maternal grand aunt asked Vishuddhananda, “What will happen to our Auro?” He replied, “The Divine Mother has taken him in her arms: nothing will happen to him. But he is not your Aurobindo, he is the world’s Aurobindo and the world will be filled with his perfume.” Narayan Jyotishi also, who did not know me, foretold my three trials, my white enemies and my release. When my horoscope was shown to him, he said there was some mistake about the time of my birth. When it was corrected, he remarked, “Ah, the lead is turned into gold now.”

– Sri Aurobindo