Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

2 March 1940

The Mother (coming into Sri Aurobindo’s room at 11 a.m.): Do you want to hear a story?

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, what is it about?

The Mother: About the theft in Aroumé. It seems that a man was lying drunk against the wall with a bag of husk by his side. The time was about 8.30 a.m. Some sadhaks saw him and found that he was the Dining Room’s sanitary servant. They showed compassion for him but didn’t know what to do. They came to Amrita. He went there, hired a rickshaw, put the man in it and sent him home. In the morning Dyuman found that a bag of husk was missing from the Dining Room, and he saw traces of footprints on the wall. This man evidently climbed the wall, fell down and lay there in a drunken condition. So now these people have first lost the thief and then paid money for him to go home along with the bag of husk! (Sri Aurobindo started laughing.)

Later, during his sponging, Sri Aurobindo spoke to Purani who had not been there in the morning.

Sri Aurobindo: Have you heard the story of Buddhist compassion in Aroumé?

Purani: No; is it about some theft? I saw Amrita bustling about.

Sri Aurobindo (after recounting the story to Purani): Amrita out of Buddhist compassion paid the man’s rickshaw fare.

Satyendra: I too was there at that time.

Sri Aurobindo: Oh, you were also one of the Buddhists?

Satyendra: No, Sir. I was only a spectator. The whole story sounds like one of Dutt’s.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes – only it has the disadvantage of being true. It seems there have been thefts in the house of Benabellis and of the Inspector of Police. It has proved the inefficiency of the Police.

Satyendra: Dutt’s stories have shed a flood of light on old events.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, the light that never was on sea or land.

Purani: May I recount a tale about Barin now? Sudhir told me that once Barin came to his house as a guest. Sudhir asked him straight why he had left Pondicherry and to his straight question wanted a straight answer. “When all are turning towards Pondicherry,” he said, “how is it that you have come away? You had many experiences, stayed a long time. Still why have you come away? Tell me frankly.”

Sri Aurobindo (enjoying the story): And then? What was the reply?

Purani: The first day Barin evaded Sudhir. The second day he again was asked and then Barin told him that he had come away because of his personal difficulties. The Mother had asked him repeatedly not to go; even while going away he was having experiences right up to Villipuram, as if he were being carried in a golden egg by the Mother and he was all the time hearing, “Don’t go, don’t go.” But he wouldn’t listen. He had fallen from the path and was getting the consequences of the fall.

Evening

Purani: I asked Krishnalal whether he had any idea behind his buffalo.

Sri Aurobindo (smiling): Yes? What was his answer?

Purani: He says he wanted to paint a goat first. As he had heard that somebody was presenting a goat to the Ashram, he waited for confirmation. In the meantime he did this buffalo in a single day.

Sri Aurobindo: All the same he has done it well.

Purani: He wanted to show, as you said, a psychic change.

Sri Aurobindo (breaking into laughter on hearing about the confirmation of his own joke): It looks like a well-disposed cow and a bit of a dog too. But there is more psychic sorrow in it than joy – sorrow over the sins of the world. (Laughter)

Have you heard that the thief has paid rather heavily for a little bag of husk? He has been handed over to the Police; he will lose his job and has also lost two rupees. Perhaps it is the rickshawalla who has deprived him of the money.

Satyendra: I suspect more the servant, Sir, who accompanied him and was taking care of him. (Laughter) But why did he scale the wall when the door was quite open?

Sri Aurobindo: He was too drunk to know that.

Purani: Some other things were found in the bag, they say.

Sri Aurobindo: Amrita’s old shirt, which was presented to the man according to his own story. He has confessed to the Police about the bag but said that he was too drunk to know what he was doing. What will be the law of Karma in his case? He has paid heavily for his Karma in this life, and will he pay still more heavily in the next?

Satyendra: No, Sir, it is more than cancelled. (Laughter)

A man loiters regularly near the wine shop by the side of our Dining Room and makes rather free use of the liquor available. Dr. Becharlal is anxious about him and says, “This poor man will die of his liver.”

Purani: He may die without it as well.

Sri Aurobindo: With no liver! (Laughter)