Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

11 May 1940

Nirodbaran: So Chamberlain has been forced to resign.

Sri Aurobindo: Not forced. He has himself resigned. That was the only thing to do. Now what is wanted is a national government.

Nirodbaran: Does it mean that all his ministers too will have to resign?

Sri Aurobindo: Of course. The King asks the new Prime Minister to make his Cabinet.

Nirodbaran: I don’t understand why those small countries could not make secret treaties.

Sri Aurobindo: Perhaps for fear of discovery. But they could at least send some deputies to make some secret arrangements, deputies who could act on their own responsibility.

Nirodbaran: Lloyd George has given a complimentary epithet to Hitler by calling him extraordinary.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, he has an admiration for Hitler.

Satyendra: Others have called him a mad dog.

Nirodbaran: In the Ashram the feeling is divided. Some are for the British and some for Hitler.

Sri Aurobindo: For Hitler?

Satyendra: Not exactly, but they are anti-British.

Sri Aurobindo: Not a rational feeling. How can India, who wants freedom, take sides with somebody who takes away freedom from other nations?

Satyendra: Feelings are not rational.

Sri Aurobindo: Then the subjection of India will be justified in other countries’ eyes?

Purani: This parachute-dropping seems to be a new method of warfare.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, it was first devised by the Russians. But I don’t think it can be very effective. It can be effective for sabotage or in places where there is no military organisation. Russia used it in Finland because the Finnish frontier was near and there too it was not so effective. The parachutists can be very easily rounded up.

Evening

Satyendra: The Rotterdam aerodrome is in German hands. I wonder how they were able to take it.

Purani: By parachute-dropping, probably.

Satyendra: The Germans are landing in Dutch and French uniforms, it seems.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, that is one of Hitler’s ideas. Rauschnig, his one time confidential secretary, says that Hitler’s plan seems to be that many such uniformed Germans will land in Paris one day and capture it. People will be so amazed that they will forget to put up any resistance. This Hitler seems to have a romantic head.

Satyendra: Why is England landing troops in Iceland? What danger could there be?

Sri Aurobindo: They could as well do it at the North Pole.

Satyendra: After all they have taken an initiative. Since they could not do it anywhere else, why not in Iceland?

Sri Aurobindo: Hitler may be mad, but not so mad as to attack Iceland.