Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

24 November 1939

Dr. Manilal: While meditating I had a momentary vision of a bakul tree with violet flowers. What meaning, Sir?

Sri Aurobindo: May be symbolic. Does anybody know the significance of bakul ?

Champaklal: Patience! (Laughter) So it means you must have patience.

Nirodbaran: And violet?

Sri Aurobindo: It has many meanings. Maybe Krishna’s compassion.

Dr. Manilal: Patience till eternity?

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, you must think as if all eternity were before you.

Satyendra: Krishna is a very difficult God. Shiva would have been easy to satisfy.

Purani: Yes, he doesn’t care for consequences. Krishna has to come afterwards to save the situation.

Dr. Manilal: Shiva seems to give boons to the Asuras, sometimes to both the opposite parties in the fight, sometimes boons which are contradictory to former ones.

Sri Aurobindo: He says, “This fellow has done some Tapasya, let me give him something.” He is also Bholanath: he doesn’t remember what he has given.

Dr. Manilal: In the Puranas his boons lead sometimes to destruction.

Satyendra: He is also the God of destruction.

Dr. Manilal: Yes, and he runs away from the destruction!

Sri Aurobindo: He doesn’t care for destruction any more than for running away.

Dr. Manilal: Why did God create this world? Was he very unhappy?

Nirodbaran: Do you create out of unhappiness?

Sri Aurobindo: Why unhappy? He may have created the world for fun. “Let me create Manilal to see what he does,” he may have said.

Nirodbaran (after some time): Dr. Amiya Sankar wants to know if and how one can get direct guidance in work.

Sri Aurobindo: Guidance from whom? From me? I am not a doctor.

Nirodbaran: No, inner guidance.

Sri Aurobindo: One can get guidance by the opening of the inner being, the psychic, the inner mental or even the inner vital. Only, the psychic is more sure.

Dr. Manilal: How to open the psychic?

Sri Aurobindo: There are many ways.

Dr. Manilal: Please tell us one or two.

Sri Aurobindo: One can get the opening by making the mind quiet or by turning one’s mind towards the Divine or by separating oneself from one’s movements and trying to keep them separate by mental or other control.

Nirodbaran: Turning one’s mind to the Divine would mean the rejection of desires at the same time.

Sri Aurobindo: Not necessarily. When the mind is turned, it helps to awaken the divine element in oneself and the rejection may follow by itself.

Dr. Manilal: But the rejection is so difficult. I have been trying to control anger for such a long time but when the moment comes I am simply carried away.

Sri Aurobindo: That is because you are still trying with the mind and you still want to have the anger.

Dr. Manilal: How? I want to reject it.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but some part in you must want it. Otherwise it couldn’t remain.

Dr. Manilal: But I am not conscious.

Sri Aurobindo: But are you conscious of everything in yourself?

Dr. Manilal: Can the psychic, after opening, close up again?

Sri Aurobindo: Yes; if you ignore it, it can get clouded. Sometimes people mistake the inner mental opening for the psychic. Of course it doesn’t matter very much from the practical point of view. The psychic is behind all these inner mental and vital planes.