Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

28 November 1939

Nirodbaran: Satuda was lamenting the plight of Bengali Hindus. He says there is a cultural conquest taking place.

Sri Aurobindo: How? Hindus are becoming Muslims?

Nirodbaran: No, not religious conquest but cultural; Hindu culture being replaced by Muslim. At schools and colleges, books on Muslim culture are being forced on the students.

Sri Aurobindo: Why don’t the Hindus react?

Purani: Instead of lamenting they should also organise something.

Sri Aurobindo: Quite so.

Nirodbaran: They have no leaders; that’s the trouble. Satuda appeals to you to do something.

Sri Aurobindo: Bah!

Nirodbaran: Satuda had a small cut on his finger which made him so nervous that he postponed going back to Bengal by one day.

Purani: What will he do if war breaks out in India?

Sri Aurobindo: Perhaps he will go to Burma!

Evening

Nirodbaran (when Sri Aurobindo lay down after walking): Dakshinapada had a vision: he saw you sitting high up radiating great power and light, as if by a slight movement of your body you could break the world and remake it. All the gods and goddesses stood around in adoration. Hitherto he has considered the Shakti greater than the Bhagavan. Now he thinks the reverse.

Sri Aurobindo: He is going to the other extreme now.

Nirodbaran: But he saw the Shaktis adoring you.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but they are Shaktis.

Nirodbaran: He feels some intense yearning within for something he can’t reach due to some obstruction.

Sri Aurobindo: That is the psychic yearning, and the obstruction is the vital. He has to make the vital quiet to get rid of the obstruction.

Nirodbaran: Sisir Mitra asks if there is any difference in quality between a vegetarian diet and a meat and fish diet.

Sri Aurobindo: A meat and fish diet is good for fighters. But it makes the body-consciousness heavy – I mean the psychological stuff of that consciousness.

Nirodbaran: You have said before that the nature of food doesn’t matter much in Yoga and that people here used to eat everything.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but all the same it has that effect.