Nirodbaran
Talks with Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1
10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941
20 February 1940
Dr. Manilal arrived at 10 a.m.; he made pranam to Sri Aurobindo and asked about the injured leg, for which he had advised “hanging” from the knee to help the flexion.
Sri Aurobindo: The leg is hanging very well.
Dr. Manilal: I have brought some Ayurvedic medicine for you. I got it from a Madrasi lady who is an automatic writer and has great bhakti. She keeps your photo and Ramana Maharshi’s and goes into trances. In her planchette sittings, some Rishi comes and dictates to her. I asked her about the defective flexion of your knee and she gave me this medicine, which is quite harmless – it is white mustard and raktapillai. She says your knee will be all right in six days. The treatment is prescribed by a Rishi.
Sri Aurobindo: Very kind of the Rishi.
Dr. Manilal: I got a prescription for myself too. It is rice-water and flour of dal (lentil) to be poured on the head. It will cure headache and blood-pressure.
After the sponging of Sri Aurobindo had begun, Dr. Manilal started the talk.
Dr. Manilal: The late Gaekwad wanted to have translations of English books into Gujarati. The word “jailor” was rendered karagrihadhikari, the “superintendent of jail” was rendered karagriha-dyaksha and so on. Sometimes it is very difficult to understand what is meant. They have to put English equivalents in brackets.
Purani: But in former times people easily understood such words as amatya, Suba, etc.
Dr. Manilal: Now Suba is more easily understood. But when they write Mahasabha for Congress, I take it to be the Hindu Mahasabha.
Sri Aurobindo: Why? You can then take Congress as the American Congress. (Laughter) Even in England it was not always easy. The word “telegraph”, for instance, was not at all easy at the beginning. By constant use words become familiar. So there is no reason why one shouldn’t have one’s own language.
Dr. Manilal: At present Urdu words are much favoured.
Sri Aurobindo: When we have Sanskrit, why should we leave it and go to Urdu?
Dr. Manilal: What about a word like “collector”? Isn’t the Urdu equivalent – jilladhisha – preferable?
Sri Aurobindo: The English word “collector” is itself far better.
Dr. Manilal (After a while): I find The Life Divine very difficult, Sir.
Sri Aurobindo: What is the difficulty? The language or the thought?
Dr. Manilal: It is the language that I can’t follow. Can’t it be made easier?
Sri Aurobindo (smiling and shaking his head): Ask the Grace of God to aid you. (Laughter)
Purani: The language is not the difficulty, and it can’t be made any easier. It is the thought that is difficult to follow. Some people find it very easy.
Sri Aurobindo: Sisir Mitra is one. He found the book very clear and remarked that after reading it there could be no questions left.
Purani: Quite so. One may not accept the conclusions but one has to admit that all arguments and questions have been answered.
Sri Aurobindo (to Manilal): You have to wait for some translations into Gujarati then.
Dr. Manilal: Translations are even more difficult – if Purani, who is a translator, doesn’t mind my saying so.
Purani: No. I don’t mind. I know.
Dr. Manilal: I understood Purani’s original writings better than his translations.
Sri Aurobindo: Have you read Kant? (Laughter)
Dr. Manilal: No, Sir!
Purani: After Kant you would realise how easy The Life Divine is.
Nirodbaran: Don’t worry, Dr. Manilal, I am in the same boat as you.
Purani: Many doctors will be in it.
Champaklal: But Rajangam finds The Life Divine easy. He says that one shouldn’t read anything else except this book. He is in ecstasies over it.
Purani: I also find it very clear.
Sri Aurobindo: One should have a little knowledge of philosophy. What I have tried to give in the book is a metaphysical foundation of Yoga and a new view of life. Any book of philosophy has to be metaphysical. Even then Haridas Chaudhuri writes that some people may consider it dogmatic – lacking in enough argumentative dialectics.
Dr. Manilal: But Vivekananda’s books on Yoga are very easy to follow.
Sri Aurobindo: His books are made from speeches and he speaks of what everybody ought to know.
Dr. Manilal: He is a philosopher also.
Sri Aurobindo: Philosophers may not accept him as one.
Nirodbaran: He doesn’t go into the principles of things and the various arguments pro and con.
Sri Aurobindo: No. (To Dr. Manilal) As for The Life Divine, it is not the language but the thought-substance that may be difficult to follow. If I had written about the Congress in the same language, then you would have understood. (Laughter)
Purani: One has to go on reading and reading. The first reading may be very dry and difficult.
Dr. Manilal: Yes. That was also the case with midwifery. When I first read the book not a single word entered my head. Afterwards, it became my greatest favourite.
Sri Aurobindo: So The Life Divine may take the place of your midwifery.
Nirodbaran: Another difficulty besides understanding is that of keeping it all in the memory.
Sri Aurobindo: That is a different matter. It depends on the mind’s capacity to retain things. V will understand and remember everything, I suppose.
Nirodbaran: And also add much of his own.
Satyendra: A commentator can do that.
Sri Aurobindo: I read many commentaries on Shankara but not a single one agreed with the other. Some were even contradictory in themselves.
Dr. Manilal: To go back to my medicine, will you try it?
Nirodbaran: The time-limit of six days makes me all the more sceptical of its efficacy. Why not first try on yourself the medicine prescribed for your own trouble?
Satyendra (who had come in after the medicine had been talked about): What has been prescribed for Dr. Manilal?
Nirodbaran: Rice-water to be applied.
Satyendra: Applied where?
Sri Aurobindo: On his head. Not for his hair! (Laughter) The medicine has been given by a Rishi through the planchette. It will cure Manilal’s headache and blood-pressure.
Dr. Manilal: The lady who works the planchette is very devotional and one feels an atmosphere of peace at her place. After one asks questions, she gives the blessings of Panduranga. That means that one should stop.
Sri Aurobindo: Did she bless you?
Dr. Manilal: Yes, Sir.
Sri Aurobindo: After your questions?
Dr. Manilal: Yes, Sir.
Nirodbaran: You asked only one question?
Dr. Manilal: No; I asked two more, but they are personal.
Nirodbaran: Ah! Let us hear them.
Champaklal: Are they about some future fulfilment?
Sri Aurobindo: He is keeping the interesting parts secret.
Dr. Manilal: No, Sir. There can be nothing secret from you. But if I speak of them I may lose faith.
Champaklal: But does a prophecy’s success depend on telling or not telling it? If it is to come true, it will do so in any case.
Sri Aurobindo: He may lose the consolation of mind which comes from faith in the future.
Dr. Manilal: You said last time about a disciple that when he spoke of his experiences to his Guru, the experiences stopped and the Guru said, “The Devil has caught hold of you.”
Sri Aurobindo: I? I don’t remember. (After a while) Yes, I remember now. It was about a Sannyasi in the Ramakrishna Mission.
Dr. Manilal: Lele also said something like that to you. And you said you would then surrender to the Devil.
Sri Aurobindo: That was a different matter. I didn’t say that to him. I said it to myself: “You have handed me over to the Divine and if as a result of that the Devil catches hold of me, I will say that the Divine has sent the Devil and I will follow him.”
By now the sponging was over and Sri Aurobindo was hanging his leg while sitting in a chair.
Sri Aurobindo (To Dr. Manilal): You see, I have kept my promise. I said that as soon as The Life Divine was finished I would hang my leg.
Dr. Manilal: I am grateful for it, Sir. But it has taken a long time to finish.
Sri Aurobindo: I didn’t know myself that it would take so long.
Dr. Manilal: Can’t a Yogi know whether a medicine proposed is right or not?
Sri Aurobindo: He can, but will he try to do so?
Dr. Manilal: I already see more bending in the knee, Sir, by the very talk of the application.
Sri Aurobindo: Not by the talk, but by your very contact with the lady, which I yogically came to know of. (Laughter)