Nirodbaran
Talks with Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1
10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941
19 May 1940
Purani: Instead of always being on the defensive, if the Allies also attacked it would be good.
Sri Aurobindo: For that one must have superior strength of the army as well as armaments. Otherwise it is dangerous. The Allies are superior in the air. It seems that their machines are better than the German ones, and the American ones are still better. If so it would be an advantage.
Nirodbaran: The Allies are trying to cut off the German petrol supply by destroying their communications and depots.
Purani: They may still get it from Romania through old contracts.
Sri Aurobindo: No, Romania has stopped all supply. By supplying oil she would invite her own invasion.
Purani: Even without receiving oil, Germany may attack.
Satyendra: Then better to be attacked without supplying.
Nirodbaran: X has found from your own writings what happened to you in your eighteenth year. You have written in Aurobinder Patra: “At fourteen the seed sprouted and at eighteen it established itself firmly.”
Sri Aurobindo (laughing): That is a psychological event, not an outside action.
Nirodbaran: Maybe, but it led to action.
Sri Aurobindo: At eighteen, I think we started in London the secret Lotus and Dagger Society.
Nirodbaran: Then it is an event!
Sri Aurobindo: It lasted only for a day. (Laughter)
Nirodbaran: X also says that your eighteen year cycle has a close link with his. In 1890 he was born, in 1908 he joined the Swadeshi Movement and in 1926 he came here. Nolini’s cycle also seems to coincide with it. He joined the Movement in 1908.
Sri Aurobindo: But what happened to him in 1926?
Nirodbaran: I don’t know.
Sri Aurobindo (addressing Purani): When was the Ashram started?
Purani: In 1926.
Sri Aurobindo (laughing): There you are!
Purani: It is like Spengler’s fitting facts to theories.
I had again a talk with Doraiswamy. He heard from Nolini that the Mother has said that at present the freedom of India would be catastrophic for the country. You have said that the demon of slavery is sucking the life-blood of India. These two statements he does not know how to reconcile. I said that there was no antagonism between the two.
Sri Aurobindo: The Mother says that two conditions must be satisfied before India gets her freedom. One is unity; the other, defence. If there is no unity, then India will be prey to another power. We can’t afford to have a civil war in India, for that would surely invite another power to occupy her. Even C.R. Das told me that this Hindu-Muslim question must be solved before the British leave and he was no less a patriot than anyone else.
Evening
Satyendra: What is this flame-throwing business the Germans have started?
Sri Aurobindo: That is a real sign of the Asura. Hitler has many devilish things in store, it seems – works of devilish ingenuity.
Nirodbaran (addressing Satyendra): Your Indian Express prints in headlines that the Germans are only seventy miles from Paris.
Satyendra: It is from your American correspondent.
Sri Aurobindo: The French frontier is about one hundred to one hundred thirty miles from Paris. So seventy miles is nothing alarming. We are accustomed to distances. Madras is more than one hundred miles from here, yet considered pretty close. But seventy miles in Europe is quite a good distance. I thought this extension of the Maginot Line had been completed before the war began. They say it was done only during the eight months of the war.
Purani: Yes.
Sri Aurobindo: That was during Daladier’s time. That is just like Daladier. He talks more than he does. So he has been politely pushed out.
Purani: He did not perhaps calculate an attack through Belgium.
Sri Aurobindo: Calculations always go wrong. It is said that Russia is panicky and Stalin upset over Hitler’s success.
Purani: Yes, before also there was such news. There may be some truth there.
Satyendra: Stalin thought the Allies would win.
Sri Aurobindo: That is another calculation. No, he thought that both powers would be exhausted and then he would have his chance.
Purani: Then Dr. André’s prophecy that he would be the dictator of Europe would come true.
Nirodbaran: After the Finnish war, it does not seem possible. That has been a pointer to the limits of his army’s capacity and strength.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, he has been moderate after that. What happened is no wonder after he has killed all his generals. I suppose he has no such military knowledge as Trotsky had.
Purani: No.
Sri Aurobindo: The Finnish war has been reassuring to Hitler. He has seen Stalin’s limited strength and thinks, “Let Stalin do now whatever he likes. After the war I will handle him.”