Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

5 April 1940

In the morning news came of C.F. Andréws’ death.

Sri Aurobindo (looking at Purani after his sponging was over): These doctors are wonderful. They had given out the news that the operation was successful. Now Andréws is dead.

Purani: There is the famous joke that the operation was successful but the patient died.

Sri Aurobindo: This is not a joke but a reality. This is the second case of late. The other was Brabourne.

Nirodbaran: I don’t know why Andréws went to Presidency Hospital. Major Drummonds who seems to have operated on him doesn’t have a very high reputation. There were other leading surgeons – even among the Indians.

Sri Aurobindo: Europeans have a prejudice against Indians but Andréws should have known better. Arjava had a very poor opinion of the Indian Medical Service. He said only third rate people come here as I.M.S.’s.

Nirodbaran: Why should first-rate people come here when they are well provided for at home?

Satyendra: Surgeons sometimes diagnose wrongly and remove an organ only to find that there was nothing wrong with it.

Sri Aurobindo: And they can’t put it back! (Laughter)

Nirodbaran: There are also differences among doctors. Venkataraman was told by one oculist that needling was not safe for a second cataract. Another said there was nothing wrong with needling. One said saline injections might be tried, another that they should have been tried at the outset only. One oculist said, “A very broad iridectomy has been done; the old-fashioned method was a bad one.”

Sri Aurobindo: And the old-fashioned will say that the modern people are faddists. Who did the operation?

Nirodbaran: A relative.

Sri Aurobindo: Relatives will do like that. (Laughter)

Purani: The Secretary of the Muslim League states that the Muslims were originally Hindus. Sikander Hyat Khan comes from Rajput stock and the Secretary himself had Brahmin ancestors, and so they can all claim a separate Muslim India.

Sri Aurobindo: If they were Hindus, why do they claim anything separate?

Purani: He also says that the British took India from Muslim hands. So they were the more recent rulers. Somebody from Madras has replied that India was taken from the Sikhs, Rajputs and Mahrattas. The Muslims were already decadent at that period.

Sri Aurobindo: That is true, though there was still some Muslim rule.

Purani: The Madras man also says that the argument about being rulers is funny. The Harijans, who are converts to Christianity, may after fifty years claim that because they have the same religion as the British, they were the rulers. (Laughter) Somebody else said that if only one district from U.P. was included in Punjab and one from Bihar in Bengal, then the Hindus would become a majority. This present division is fictitious and not natural.

Sri Aurobindo: In Assam it is like that. Sylhet has been included in Assam only for the Muslim majority there. Some parts of Bengal are included in Orissa deliberately and so also are Birbhum and Manbhum.

Evening

Purani (showing some paintings): Here is the work of a Chinese painter who has come to India.

Sri Aurobindo (looking at them): They are very powerful and very Chinese.

Purani: A picture of Chinese generals by this painter has been done in European style. It appeared in the Visvahharati.

Sri Aurobindo: Poor imitation of Europe. When Chinese painters imitate, they produce a very weak result.

Purani: It is said that the Chinese are the world’s greatest artists. Their handwriting is such as to make an artist.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, their calligraphy is a good training for the mind and for art. Arabic calligraphy also is very delicate and thorough in detail. The letters and the writings of other nations are too utilitarian.