Nirodbaran
Talks with Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1
10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941
19 December 1939
Sisir Maitra had presented a copy of The Life Divine to Tagore and asked him to read it. Tagore told him that his eyesight was bad. But Maitra forced the issue saying, “You said you were waiting to hear his word. This book is his word.” Then Tagore replied that he would try.
Sri Aurobindo: Tan Sen1 has written to Dilip praising him, saying, “You have put stamps upon my heart.” (Laughter) There were some other queer phrases. He didn’t tell you?
Nirodbaran: No.
Satyendra: It is not that people don’t understand The Life Divine but that they find it difficult to apply to life.
Sri Aurobindo: Somebody has said – I don’t know who – ideals are to be held but not to be applied.
Satyendra: Tagore can make a last attempt.
Nirodbaran: I think I too will again make an honest attempt to understand it.
Sri Aurobindo: But it is, I think, easier than books by Kant or other philosophers.
Purani: Oh yes!
Evening
We learnt from the radio that N.R. Sarkar had resigned. So the talk centred on that, it being the most important news of the day. Purani suggested that he may now join the Hindu Mahasabha and do something against the Bengal Ministry. That led the talk to the Hindu-Muslim problem and the charges of the Muslims against the Congress Ministries.
Nirodbaran: Yes, but what about the charges of the Bengal Hindus against the Muslims? But strangely enough nobody knows or talks about that.
Sri Aurobindo: No; no Indian paper gives publicity to these things. They simply make a brief statement.
Nirodbaran: The New Statesman says that there is no mishap in Bengal during this Ministry.
Sri Aurobindo: Because there are no riots?
Nirodbaran: Perhaps.
Satyendra: Huq has now given a list of charges which are not charges. They are all vague and general.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes.
Satyendra: I don’t see how any solution can be reached. Democracy doesn’t seem to fit India, yet dictatorship is also not without its dangers.
Sri Aurobindo: Democracy is a failure. It suits only those people who are born to it like England and the Scandinavian countries. Even in America it has failed. That is a proof of its corruption.
Purani: It is astonishing how gangsters are so powerful there.
Sri Aurobindo: Not only are there gangsters, but intrigue and corruption even among members of the Senate.
Satyendra (after a lull): But who and what sort of dictatorship do you think will suit India?
Sri Aurobindo: I don’t know; when a dictator is there he will start it. (Laughter)
Later, when Purani and Nirodbaran were alone with Sri Aurobindo, Nirodbaran spoke of Sarkar again.
Nirodbaran: Sarkar’s resignation seems a little inopportune.
Sri Aurobindo: How?
Nirodbaran: If he had remained he could have exercised some restraint on the Muslim Ministers.
Sri Aurobindo: Do you think so? What about the other Hindu Ministers? Will they side with him?
Nirodbaran: I don’t know. But two of them were supposed to belong to his group, though not politically.
Purani: If he can break the Ministry …
Sri Aurobindo: How? He may not be able to carry the other Hindu Ministers with him as he hasn’t resigned due to a communal issue.
1 A Chinese professor at Viswa Bharati. His real name is Tan-un-Sang.