Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

27 December 1939

Purani: Some Madrasi has come to see X to learn Pranayama from him as he has written a book on the subject. X replied by signs that he has taken a vow of silence and couldn’t teach. People will say that he is vowed to silence and yet has written so many books!

Sri Aurobindo: The vow is not supposed to apply to speaking through books. Carlyle not only wrote thirty-seven volumes but also spoke profusely on the value of silence!

Nirodbaran: Poets write poems on silence.

Sri Aurobindo: In 1914 when the Mother came here, there also came a Dutch painter who drew a sketch of me. At the end of every meditation, he used to say, “Let us now talk of the Ineffable.”

Then Purani brought in the subject of Sanskrit quotations.

Satyendra: Sri Aurobindo is not known by orthodox Pundits as a philosopher, but as a Yogi.

Nirodbaran: They say he doesn’t know enough Sanskrit!

Sri Aurobindo (smiling): The editor of the Bengali paper made that remark. He also said that I don’t know enough about sex; if I did, I wouldn’t have started a mixed Ashram, because in a mixed Ashram, sex-energy interferes.

Evening

Nirodbaran: There is a lot of controversy going on regarding war aims. Have you seen Shaw’s article? Is the declaration of war aims now going to be helpful?

Sri Aurobindo: Nonsense! How can war aims be declared now? Who is going to agree at present to the idea of a federation of Europe which Shaw is advocating? That is all the talk of intellectuals. Besides, Russia will want a Communist federation, Italy a Fascist one, Romania another form and some will even want a federation of autarchy. I don’t know that the German people themselves are keen about federation. Of course some form of it has to be found afterwards.