Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

7 June 1940

Purani: Churchill’s speech has come as a revelation to Italy.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, Italy thought the Allied Army had been annihilated.

Purani: Ironside is now forming mobile units to guard against a German invasion. Doing it too late.

Sri Aurobindo: Why too late?

Purani: When the attack is imminent.

Sri Aurobindo: I don’t think any attack is likely now except by small armies which will be crushed by overwhelming numbers. There is no more chance of surprise attacks. Besides, the Allies have destroyed all the ports and without ports the Germans can’t launch an attack. It will take time to put them in order, and by that time England will be still more ready. Even now she has a strong army ready. No, Hitler won’t attack; he has not intuition but intimation. That is why he is driving against Paris. He knows that if he sets out to repair the ports and attack England, by the time he is ready the Allies will be quite prepared and afterwards attacks on Paris won’t be possible.

Evening

Sri Aurobindo: The French have destroyed four hundred tanks they say. It is a very good number – one-fifth of the whole.

Purani: Yes, the Germans have brought in two thousand tanks.

Sri Aurobindo: It seems Hitler brought two-and-a-half million men to Belgium and only fifty thousand were lost. Still he has two million while the Allies did not use even a million there; no wonder they were defeated. Have you read that the Belgian consul has become furious with the Amrita Bazar and calls it a gossip-monger? He praises Churchill and the Hindu. But now Churchill says that one can form one’s own opinion about the conduct of Leopold. (Laughter)

Nishtha met him in America. She says that he is a man of underhanded dealings. When she heard of his defection, the first thing she said was, “Oh, it must be his mother.”