Nirodbaran
Talks with Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1
10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941
21 January 1940
Dr. Rao arrived and said that some trouble was still going on over the loss of some instruments. Nirodbaran told Sri Aurobindo about it. So when Rao came Sri Aurobindo spoke to him.
Sri Aurobindo: I hear you are being instrumented?
Dr. Rao: It is the same old thing, Sir. They say the superintendent is to blame. However, I believe within that it will be all right by your blessings. Even if some bad things happen, I will say that they are also the blessings of God.
Sri Aurobindo (after a while, smiling): Yes, when anything bad happens you call it God’s blessings while if anything good happens, you take the credit and become egoistic.
Dr. Rao: No, Sir. (A little later) As you raise the question, we do say that. (Laughter)
Purani: Have you heard that N.R. Sirkar and Kiran S. Roy are coming here?
Sri Aurobindo: What for?
Purani: For Darshan. And Nazimuddin also.
Sri Aurobindo: Nazimuddin?
Purani: Yes, he in August, the others in February. Nolini is wondering where to put them up.
Nirodbaran: They have got permission?
Purani: No, they have written for permission. L’Hotel d’Europe seems to Nolini the only place.
Sri Aurobindo: Baron speaks of it as being quite up to the mark.
Purani: Yes, they have rebuilt it very nicely. I don’t know why Nazimuddin has taken the fancy to come. Perhaps he thinks, “If Sir Akbar can come, why not I, who am also a Sir?” (Laughter)
Nirodbaran: The supramental seems to be descending.
Sri Aurobindo: Who knows, Fazlul Huq may come one day.
Nirodbaran: Then the Descent will be complete. But he is more likely than others to come. He is more plastic – he was a Congressman, next a Muslim Leaguer and then a Yogi.
Sri Aurobindo: He belongs to the Overmind then.
Nirodbaran: Dilip told me that Sirkar, B.C. Roy and Kiran S. Roy used to take an interest in the Ashram.
Sri Aurobindo: I see! Somebody also talked to Nazimuddin I heard, or at least he was present at a talk about the Ashram.
Purani: There is one Hemen Roy Chowdhury, Zamindar of Mymensingh, in whose house you stayed. The name of his place is “Tress and Shrubs”.
Sri Aurobindo: No, “Trees and Shrubs”. (Laughter) Is he still alive? (Laughter)
Nirodbaran: You are sending people to the other world! (Laughter)
Purani: His nephew has written. So he may be dead.
Sri Aurobindo: He was at that time an energetic young man, a revolutionary. I thought by now he might be dead.
Nirodbaran: This is the third time you have said that. Sirkar has gone to Wardha.
Sri Aurobindo: He is trying to enter the Congress again?
Nirodbaran: Looks like it, and he is placating everybody: the Hindu Mahasabha, the Bengal Congress. He justifies the Mahasabha and says that Bengalis have reason to be dissatisfied with Congress.
Sri Aurobindo: And he has reason to be dissatisfied with Huq, and Huq has reason to turn him out? That is a yogic attitude. He also seems to belong to the Overmind. (Laughter)
Nirodbaran: I went to Dilip today. He asked me if it was true that you had said that the spirit of your Tapasya is behind the Hindu Sabha movement.
Sri Aurobindo: What did you say?
Nirodbaran: I said that I didn’t know. It came out in the paper under the name of the secretary, so it may be true.
Sri Aurobindo: Who said that?
Nirodbaran: Since it was the secretary, it may be Nolini.
Purani: No, Anilbaran, I think. Perhaps it was written privately to somebody and they have published it.
Sri Aurobindo (after some time): Who knows, the spirit of my Tapasya may be behind the Khaksar movement also. The Divine Force is everywhere.
Nirodbaran: I told Dilip all that you had said about poetry.
Sri Aurobindo: What was that?
Nirodbaran: About creative force etc. He says Tagore’s letter has a double value as he had to praise Nishikanto in spite of himself. Dilip says it is very funny how people make contradictory statements. As for Satyen Datta’s innovations and discoveries in rhythm, Tagore appreciates them very much but when we make these experiments, he says, “What is all this nonsense they are doing about rhythm?”
Sri Aurobindo: Tagore himself made departures in metre?
Nirodbaran: Yes, his matra-vritta and swara-vritta were quite new. He can do everything new – in his drama, music, art, but others can’t.
Sri Aurobindo: No, they must follow the eternal ancient path.
Evening
Purani: Dilip told me just now that A.E. moves him very much. He has a great depth, he says.
Sri Aurobindo: To move Dilip? (Laughter) But many people don’t like him.
Nirodbaran: Satyendra also likes A.E. very much, more than Yeats because of his spiritual substance.
Sri Aurobindo: He is a spiritual poet while Yeats is occult. Of course, A.E. has a far richer mind and has more intellectual power.
Purani: Yes, I have read his essays on Irish national reconstruction. I was glad to find that he has such a grasp over things like agriculture.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, his personality is many-sided and various. He has done more than anybody for Irish national reconstruction, while Yeats has only power of imagination.
Nirodbaran: A.E. is a better critic also.
Sri Aurobindo: I haven’t read his criticism. Yeats is a bad critic. He is nothing else, only a good poet, a very great poet. His character doesn’t seem up to very much; he is said to be vain and proud.
When the Mother came, Purani read the radio news which stated that N.N. Sirkar had taken up spinning.
Sri Aurobindo: Oh! N.R. Sirkar?
Purani: No, it is N.N. Sirkar.
Sri Aurobindo (after his walk): Are you sure it is not N.R. Sirkar? That seems to be more likely now that he is trying to enter the Congress. But why is he coming here then? Of course, if he doesn’t spin himself, he will get it done by others. (Laughter)
Nirodbaran: He has also proposed an ad hoc committee.
Sri Aurobindo: If any agreement comes out, though there is no chance of it, it is only by that sort of committee, not by the Constituent Assembly.
Nirodbaran: V is trying to come in August with Sisir Mitra, I am told.
Sri Aurobindo: How? She has been refused.
Nirodbaran: No, she was to be discouraged, I heard.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but the Mother meant practical refusal.
Nirodbaran: X doesn’t like the idea of her coming. He says she hasn’t changed at all and she will only disparage us after her return. Anilbaran says she must have changed.
Sri Aurobindo: Anilbaran is optimistic.
Nirodbaran: He can’t forget her motherly caress.
Sri Aurobindo: That was because of politics.
Nirodbaran: Nazimuddin got interested through Sir Akbar perhaps. He may have met him when he went to Dacca.
Sri Aurobindo: No, Suren Ghose gave him The Life Divine.
Nirodbaran: Allah Bux has now turned to Sikandar Hyat Khan.
Sri Aurobindo: What else can he do after the refusal of the Working Committee to support him?
Nirodbaran: It seems that the Sukkur riot is a big affair. 146 Hindus killed!
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, it is not a single riot but rioting in various villages.
Purani: Nolini was saying that while he finds Nishikanto progressing in poetry, X is almost stagnant and seems to have fallen into a groove.
Nirodbaran: X has never complained to you as he has to us about his repetitions?
Sri Aurobindo: No!
Purani: Is he so satisfied with his own creations that these defects escape him? Very surprising!
Nirodbaran: You were speaking about “characteristicness” of poetry. Dilip says that J’s poems are distinctive and we also agree, while Nishikanto gives an impression of something familiar. (Sri Aurobindo kept silent.)