Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

14 May 1940

Sri Aurobindo: The Germans seem to have discovered some new methods of capturing forts.

Satyendra: They have made a considerable advance in Belgium.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. In the last war also it was like that. They made rapid progress at the beginning and that, the French say, was because the British soldiers were running away at the approach of the Germans.

Nirodbaran: If that is true, they will do the same now too.

Sri Aurobindo: One English correspondent said that the Germans were rushing like wolves.

Purani: From Cologne, any Belgian town, it seems, is only thirty minutes’ flight by air. So they can attack very easily by air.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but air flights can’t decide a battle. It is the land army on which victory depends. In France the Germans proved inferior to the French, but elsewhere they proved superior.

Nirodbaran: Is Amery better than Zetland?

Sri Aurobindo: No, he is a die-hard, I think.

Purani: In the Kalyan, one of Bejoy Goswami’s disciples has written that in his last days Goswami was at Puri during Dana-yajna and because of that he ran into heavy debts. When he fell ill he was advised to go to Calcutta, but because of his debts he could not leave Puri. His disciples managed to pay off the debts. I don’t know if he died at Calcutta.

Sri Aurobindo: No, he died at Puri. It is said he was poisoned. By Sthambhan he stayed the effects but was ultimately overcome.

Purani: He used to feed and take care of many people. He seems to have said that poor people without food can’t accept the message of spirituality. So they must be fed first. It was done in so extensive a way that his disciples ran into debts and became poor themselves.

Sri Aurobindo: Then their spirituality must have deteriorated when they became poor!

Purani: Goswami said they should not think of the morrow. Whatever they had they must distribute to the poor.

Sri Aurobindo: Not thinking of food and distributing food to others are two different ideas without any connection between them. Spirituality does not depend upon that.

Purani: Their idea of God is that He is all love and compassion. So we must also try to be so and relieve other people’s misery.

Sri Aurobindo: That is all sentiment and nobody will believe that God is all compassion. Feeding other people does not cure poverty, it only relieves it. That is the fallacy of philanthropy. To cure poverty one has to find the cause. And it is not true that poor people can’t accept spirituality. All ascetics are poor.

Evening

The radio news said that Germany had occupied Rotterdam and separated Holland from Belgium.

Sri Aurobindo: What are the Allies doing? After sending an advance army they seem to be trying to sit comfortably in the rear. And the Germans won’t let them have any comfort.

Purani: They don’t seem to have any plan of action.

Nirodbaran: The only plan seems to be to fall back according to plan.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, they are sitting behind fortifications. And if they have any plan it is quite inadequate. The war news is very obscure nowadays.