Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

16 April 1940

Nirodbaran: Dr. André was so happy last evening, thinking he had saved Devata. The poor man is dead today.

Sri Aurobindo: He was too optimistic. The attack was too strong for the man. I did not expect him to survive tonight.

Purani: André also said that if he survived a seizure last night, he would recover.

Nirodbaran: I don’t understand why the attack came in the early morning on three successive occasions.

Satyendra: It is said that one’s vitality is at its lowest in the early morning.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes.

Nirodbaran: Could it be an attack of some force as he had just returned from visiting various places?

Sri Aurobindo: What places?

Purani: Kumbhakonam, Trichinopoly, etc.

Sri Aurobindo: Oh, then it is quite possible. Sacred places are the places for such forces, also the places of priests and Pandas.

Purani (after some time): The British have landed troops at different points, leaving the occupied areas.

Sri Aurobindo: Of course. But what is their manoeuvre? They seem to intend to occupy Bergen and Trondheim because they are concentrating their attacks on them.

Purani: The Indian Express says that one third of the German navy is gone.

Sri Aurobindo: May be true. The radio says half, but it may be one third.

Purani: Have you read the report of the officers in the Khaksar shooting enquiry? They have made some amazing disclosures – that Allama Mushriqui intended to enlist twenty-five lakhs of volunteers and be a dictator.

Sri Aurobindo: Twenty-five lakhs! That means all the Muslim adults.

Purani: After this, Sikander will hesitate to lift the ban – especially after Sir Chimanlal’s accusation that he was also a party to the Pakistan scheme.

Sri Aurobindo: But, in the scheme, if the Sikhs and Hindus were separated, they would have poor success. They may try to bring in Afghanistan. But Afghanistan is not wealthy and its people have a certain contempt for Indian Muslims. And in Bengal the West Bengalis will want a separate province.

After this Purani read out a letter from a correspondent of his, a man eighty years old. He had been doing some sadhana for a long time, such as reading Shastras, mentally seeing the Divine in everybody, etc. Now he wanted some direct guidance from Sri Aurobindo.

Sri Aurobindo: The difficulty is that he is too old. It is like X trying to learn Greek at eighty. These things take too long and before he has taken a few steps he may be off.

Then Purani gave Sri Aurobindo a typed review of The Life Divine by N.C. Brahma. Sri Aurobindo read it and kept silent.

Purani: He says that what you have said is what Shankara has said. (Laughter) It is all Adwaita philosophy.

Sri Aurobindo: Adwaita, yes, but not Shankara’s Adwaita. And so many people have interpreted Shankara in so many ways that had he been alive he would himself have been shocked at what they had made of him.