Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

8 July 1940

Purani: Gandhi has said that as the other party’s programme is the same as that of the Congress they can form ministries and carry out the administration together. If that is so, why did the Congress seek an election at all?

Sri Aurobindo: Where has he said that?

Purani: In yesterday’s Hindu.

Sri Aurobindo: Does he mean that except for his point about non-violence the others agree? How can it be? The Muslims want Pakistan and if they are allowed to take up administration they will establish Muslim Raj.

Satyendra: No, no. Gandhi has said that only about the defence policy. Otherwise why should the Congress seek any election at all? He says also that if you follow his programme, India will get Swaraj even before the war is over, provided you are non-violent.

Sri Aurobindo: But what is his programme? His programme is to sit and wait as he doesn’t want to embarrass the Government during the war. If he had started some movement for the goal, I could have understood.

Satyendra: He doesn’t want to start civil disobedience as the country is not prepared.

Sri Aurobindo: And the country will never be prepared according to the conditions laid down by him.

Nirodbaran: How to explain this shift in him from Dominion Status to independence?

Sri Aurobindo: Don’t know. He doesn’t know himself, probably. Caught by forces.

Satyendra: Or is it his principle of non-violence that is the difficulty with him?

Sri Aurobindo: In that case why did they resign the Ministry? They shouldn’t have resigned at all. Reforms of whatever kind would have come as a natural step.

Purani (after some time): Huque has started his tirade against Jinnah.

Sri Aurobindo: How? He says that he wants a settlement with the Congress and the League.

Purani: Yes, but he doesn’t like Jinnah’s asking the League members not to take part in the war committee. He wants, if he can, to come to a settlement with the Congress behind Jinnah’s back.

Satyendra: What about the arrests connected with the Holwell monument?

Nirodbaran: Still going on.

Satyendra: Bose has started the agitation, after all.

Sri Aurobindo: What a thing to fight over!

Nirodbaran: He has taken it up as a common measure between Hindus and Muslims, thinking they will also join.

Sri Aurobindo: All joined against the monument? But his friend Huque arrested him.

Nirodbaran: I thought it was the Central Government.

Sri Aurobindo: The Central Government doesn’t care about the monument. When Bose said that he would start Satyagraha, he was arrested by Huque. Huque says he is not going to be compelled by anything or any movement.

Purani: Yes, he says he will do what is right and just, but not under any compulsion.

Sri Aurobindo: That is the advantage of popular government. It can do anything it likes because of its majority and say the country is behind it. C.R. has done the same. The Muslim League is exasperated with the Congress not because of any oppression by the Congress but because they are nowhere in the Government.

Satyendra: The Bombay Congress Committee observed silence on the arrest of Bose.

Sri Aurobindo: In honour of his arrest?

Evening

Satyendra: Just now, is the stress of the Yoga laid mostly on Karma, Sir?

Sri Aurobindo: No stress is put on anything. If you mean that the sadhaks have to do more work now as the Mother had to dispense with many servants because of the war, it is true.

Dr. Rao: Your patella should be moved by somebody to give it a greater range of flexion.

Sri Aurobindo: I know. You have said that before.

Rao: By passive movement the adhesions will break.

Sri Aurobindo: Do you think so?

Dr. Rao: Yes, Sir. You can guide Nirod to do it, if you can’t do it yourself. It can be done for five minutes to start with, when the leg is in an extended position.

Sri Aurobindo: Explain all that to Nirod.

Nirodbaran: It is not the explanation but the sanction that is required.

Dr. Rao: Yes, you are right.

Sri Aurobindo (After a pause): The Purusha is a Drashta and merely observes all that is done.

Purani: That means permission is given. You can do the flexing.