Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

7 February 1940

Evening

Nirodbaran: I find in the Life of Barodi Brahmachari that he tried to cross the Sun-world three times but failed. It seems that those who cross it don’t take birth again.

Sri Aurobindo: It is the Upanishad’s saying – the Upanishad speaks both of the rays of the Sun and the gate of the Sun. Those who can’t pass through the rays return to the earth and are born again.

Nirodbaran: When he was leaving the body he said that if the day remained bright and did not become cloudy his disciples would know that he had succeeded in crossing the Sun-world. Is it the Supermind that is spoken of in the Upanishad?

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. It is only by going to the Supermind that birth ceases. But I don’t know what is meant here. In the subtle world there are many suns and moons.

Nirodbaran: We find an example of Barodi Brahmachari’s unusual eyesight. Once when he was taken to court as a witness and asked about his age, he replied, “One hundred.” “In that case,” the pleader said, “you couldn’t have seen that incident from such a distance.” He asked the pleader, “Look through that window at that tree. Do you see anything?” “No,” the pleader replied. Then Barodi Brahmachari said, “But I see a large number of red ants climbing up the tree.” All the people were startled to find that it was true!

Dr. Becharlal: Is that outer vision or inner?

Sri Aurobindo: It can be either. By training one’s vision one can see things at a distance. Training of the inner vision may produce a corresponding effect on the outer as well.

Nirodbaran: He used to read other people’s thoughts by separating the mind from the body.

Sri Aurobindo: That is done by going to the mental plane.

Nirodbaran: When asked if he remembered the circumstances in his mother’s womb just prior to his present physical birth he replied, “All I remember is that at a certain stage I felt a great pressure jamming me from all sides. I was cramped for space. As I tried to get out, I suddenly discovered a passage and rushed out.” This is the description of his condition. What interests me in this is that medical science doesn’t know so many things – for example, the exact cause that starts the labour pain: why should it start at the end of a particular month? The doctors can’t find any scientific reason.

Sri Aurobindo: There may be two reasons. Either the body consciousness of the mother feels by some subconscient instinct that it is time for the foetus to be expelled or the foetus feels that it has reached the last stage of its development and must now come out. Science, of course, doesn’t take account of these factors; it tries to explain things by mechanical laws.

Nirodbaran: One queer incident in Barodi Brahmachari’s life rather puzzles me. He wanted to see by the actual sex-act if he had really conquered the sex-impulse. He found that he had conquered it and his lack of sex-impulse was not due to any incapacity of old age because he saw that his reactions were quite normal. Now why should a realised man test himself in that way?

Sri Aurobindo: Realisation is a vast field. Unless one knows what this man has realised, it is difficult to say anything.