Nirodbaran
Talks with Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1
10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941
28 December 1938
About 5.3o p.m. Champaklal had another fit of laughter. Sri Aurobindo reacted to it by asking, “What’s the dynamite explosion?” Then we had to check our merriment. But later on, about 6.3o, the joke was repeated and Champaklal complained to Sri Aurobindo that Nirodbaran was making him laugh. Sri Aurobindo replied, “See that he does not make you go off like a firework!” We then assembled by the bedside. The atmosphere grew quiet and in consequence Nirodbaran began to yawn. Champaklal started mocking him. The result was again laughter, but a subdued gurgle of it.
Sri Aurobindo: What’s the joke?
Becharlal: Champaklal is mocking at my yawns.
Sri Aurobindo: Doesn’t he know that just as, according to X, yawning is a fatal symptom, mocking at it may also be a symptom that is fatal?
As X came into the talk, questions went round about his condition. Someone asked what medicines had been given to him that day.
Satyendra: That is a professional secret.
Sri Aurobindo: This reminds me of the science of augury in Rome. There used to be government augurs who would be called in to interpret signs and omens, and from that a college of augury came into existence. There the professors delivered lectures with grave and important faces but when afterwards they met together they would laugh among themselves.
By the way, we have got mutilated news on the radio today. They have dropped two important words. Instead of saying that the Italians are planning to march into Djibouti, they have said that the Italians are marching into it. If the Italians actually do so, the French can march into Tripoli as a counter-measure.
Purani: The French can also organise the Abyssinians against Italy.
Sri Aurobindo: There won’t be time for that.
Becharlal: The Italians don’t seem to be good soldiers.
Sri Aurobindo: No. I would be greatly surprised if they could defeat the French – unless Mussolini has changed the Italian character tremendously!
Becharlal: They had a hard time in Abyssinia.
Sri Aurobindo: It was by their superior equipment, air-bombing, mustard gas, etc. that they succeeded.
Becharlal: But they will be backed up by the Germans.
Sri Aurobindo: Italy can’t do without Germany.
Purani: Fischer says that the German army in the last war was the greatest army ever organised in the world.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, they were the most organised and the ablest soldiers in the world, except for the Japanese. But the Japanese are numerically fewer and financially poorer. The Germans, even with their great soldierly qualities, could not throw up any remarkable military genius like Foche. If Foche had been placed in command sooner, the war would have ended much earlier.
The Balkan peoples and the Turks are also good fighters. The Austrians are not.
Becharlal: What about the Sikhs and the Gurkhas?
Sri Aurobindo: They are unsurpassed. But a war does not depend only on soldiers: it depends more on generals.
Purani: Schomberg says that the Chinese are no good as soldiers and the Russians are good only at defensive warfare. The Germans at present are trying to expand in the Ukraine. After that, Hitler will come to Central Europe.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but that will at once combine Russia, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. The small countries will be afraid about their own safety.
Purani: But I don’t understand why Germany should join with Italy in attacking France.
Sri Aurobindo: Why? Hitler himself has said in his Mein Kampf that Germany is not safe without the destruction of France. And France says the same thing about Germany.
Becharlal: The way these people are preparing, war seems inevitable.
Sri Aurobindo: The Mother thinks they will not do anything till early next year. Perhaps they are trying to hit now because they think France has been divided by the general strike. But they lose sight of the fact that an attack will at once bring the whole nation together. In any case, we find the Germans are at present busy enjoying their Christmas.
Becharlal: England most probably will have to ally herself with France.
Sri Aurobindo: You have seen what Chamberlain has said? According to him, England is not obliged to help France in case of war with Italy. But if Italy combines with Germany, one can’t say what England will do.
Becharlal: In case of a general war, India will have her opportunity for independence.
Sri Aurobindo: How?
Becharlal: She will refuse to cooperate. I think these Congress Ministries were allowed because of the threat of war in Europe.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, in order to conciliate the Indians.