Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

31 May 1940

Sri Aurobindo opened the talk by referring to the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk.

Sri Aurobindo: So they are getting away from Dunkirk!

Purani: Yes. It seems the fog helped the evacuation.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. Fog is rather unusual at this time. (By saying this, it seemed that Sri Aurobindo wanted to hint that the Mother and he had made this fog to help the Allies.)

Now they have let out King Leopold who has been in sympathy with Germany for a long time. The Belgian ambassador in Spain said that he has always had sympathy with totalitarianism.

Satyendra: This fight has given some confidence to the British Expeditionary Force.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, the British were becoming used to quiet and comfort.

Purani (after some time, when the others had gone): Adwaitanand (a visitor) says that wherever he has travelled in India he has found a living current of spirituality and he is very glad. Even people who have been atheists and materialists are now turning to spirituality or having a regard for it.

Sri Aurobindo (laughing): Even Subhas Bose when depressed talks of spirituality. (Laughter)

Purani: He has met the Congress leaders and they are also changing, he says. Rajendra Prasad he found to be a very good man. About Nehru he is silent.

Sri Aurobindo: I thought he was against any spirituality.

Purani (After a while): This Muslim delegation to the All India Muslim Education Conference has arrived.

Sri Aurobindo: Delegation? It is not a delegation.

Purani: Hasn’t it been sent by Calcutta University? The Vice-Chancellor of the University is the President.

Sri Aurobindo: Calcutta University? I thought he had done it in his own capacity. Does he want to Mahommedanise Calcutta University?

Nirodbaran: Dilip says he is not impressed by them. Almost all look “stolid”, he says.

Purani: I don’t see why they have come to Pondicherry. (After a while) Wells considers that the German threat to invade is a myth to keep British forces in England instead of letting them come to France.

Sri Aurobindo: I don’t think an invasion is likely or possible.

Satyendra: They can only make air raids.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. The British are preparing their defences now.

Nirodbaran (Addressing Purani): Jinnah has come out. So he is not ill.

Sri Aurobindo: He practically says to the Government, “You side with us and we will see.”

Purani: What can the Congress do?

Sri Aurobindo: Yes.

Nirodbaran: If the Government concedes to the Congress, can the Muslim League do anything effective against it?

Satyendra: What can they do?

Nirodbaran: Non-violent non-cooperation?

Purani: Non-violent? By the Muslims?

Sri Aurobindo: They can start some Khaksar agitation.

Evening

Purani: The Germans claim to have sunk three warships and many troopships of the Allies.

Sri Aurobindo: Three warships?

Purani: Two battleships and one cruiser.

Sri Aurobindo: Two sloops probably. Difficult to believe German claims even when they say what is true.

After some time Sri Aurobindo lay in bed.

Sri Aurobindo (to Purani): I was reading this book of Amiya Chakravarty, The Dynasts and Post-War Poetry. Most of the quotations he gives from Hardy, Auden, etc. are what I said of Ramesh Dutt’s poetry: execrable. (Laughter) Give me the book, I shall read out some. (After reading out from the book here and there) Each one is worse than the other. Compared to the modern ones, Hardy’s are better, though he does not hesitate to write flat prose. (Laughter)

Purani: The Dynasts is about Napoleonic times.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, it is a caricature of Napoleon. It makes him a tyrant – it is pacifist poetry.