Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

14 March 1940

Nirodbaran: Pothan Joseph, editor of the Indian Express, has written his impressions of the Darshan of February 21.

Purani: I didn’t know he is the brother of George Joseph. George is said to have read all your works.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. But I can’t understand this editor’s position. He says he is an impenitent rationalist and yet calls Jesus the only Avatar!

Purani: And he is an agnostic too!

Satyendra: He doesn’t know himself what he is.

Purani: A lady of an aristocratic family in Broach has written to you for help. She is the wife of an England-returned man who squanders all her money and doesn’t give her any religious freedom. She is a devotee of Krishna and sees him in visions. Once Krishna asked her, “What do you want?” She replied, “I want to have darshan of Goloka.” Krishna answered, “That is very difficult.” And from that time her difficulties in family life have increased. She also hears voices. Now she asks you to help her to see the integral Being of Krishna.

Sri Aurobindo: If she hears voices and has guidance, she can ask Krishna himself. (Laughter) Do these family difficulties trouble her mind?

Purani: I should think so.

Sri Aurobindo: That is why she finds it difficult to have darshan of Goloka.

Satyendra: Somehow I distrust these voices.

Sri Aurobindo: Because it reminds you of “specially favoured people”? There is a true voice that comes, but it is not so common as people make it out to be. Gandhi hears voices only during crises.

Purani: In times of conflict when he himself can’t decide the pros and cons.

Nirodbaran: X has written, asking for some advice. It seems some Muslim fakir gave him a mantra – OM Hring – twenty years ago. He has been repeating it since then and sometimes 20,000 times a day.

Purani and Satyendra: A Muslim fakir gave him such a mantra?

Sri Aurobindo: I must say the result has been catastrophic.

Nirodbaran: Now he wants to know whether he should repeat it any more. He meditates on the Mother in the heart and goes on repeating the mantra.

Sri Aurobindo: What is the use of repeating a mantra if he remains what he is? He can’t have any realisation if he goes on like that.

Nirodbaran: Shall I write that?

Sri Aurobindo: No, I don’t want him to stop the mantra if he has been using it for such a long time. You may write that there is no need to stop it but he must not forget the other parts of Yoga.

Nirodbaran: To the mantra he himself added “Salutations to the Guru.”

Sri Aurobindo: Dovetailed it with the mantra? (Laughter)

Satyendra: He will spoil both.

Nirodbaran: A has asked to clear some English constructions in The Life Divine which he couldn’t understand.

Purani: Olaf also doesn’t understand The Life Divine. He was telling Amrita, ‘“Or rather; or rather’ – what does all that mean?”

Sri Aurobindo: He doesn’t know English, and what he writes is Swedish English. He says reading The Life Divine is all sadhana. Sadhana of hunger and incapacity. (Laughter)

Purani: He says it should be like the Bible: “O ye!”

Sri Aurobindo: “Suffer the little children to come unto me”?

Purani: Yes.

Evening

Nirodbaran: O’Dwyer has been shot dead in an East London hall by a Punjabi, and Zetland and others have been hit.

Sri Aurobindo: The Punjab seems to have a predilection for shooting in London. The previous time it was Dhingra.

Purani: Yes. But this has no political significance, it seems.

Sri Aurobindo: The right man has been shot but at the wrong time.

Nirodbaran: All the same, it is good in a way.

Sri Aurobindo: How?

Nirodbaran: He has paid for his crime.

Satyendra: Moral retribution?

Purani: It is too late now.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, he should have been shot after the Jallianwalla incident.

Nirodbaran: Perhaps there was no opportunity.

Sri Aurobindo: Why? There was plenty of opportunity in London.

Purani: But he was guarded all the time.

Sri Aurobindo: He would not have been guarded by detectives during lectures. If Zetland had died, there would have been a sensation. And if the Punjabi could have had all three in the bag, that would have been something – ex-Governors, ex-Secretaries of State!

Purani: O’Dwyer used to write in the Times against Congress and Reforms, saying, “I told you so,” etc.

Sri Aurobindo: If after being shot he could say, “I told you so,” it would be quite appropriate. (Laughter)