Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

20 August 1940

Purani: The Chinese Professor Tan Sen observed the 15th in Shantiniketan, it seems.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes.

Krishnalal has drawn a horse this month. Satyendra remarked that the horse has checked the German onslaught. In the Indian tradition the vahana or vehicle of Kalki, the last Avatar, is said to be the horse.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, Krishnalal is very apposite and has some power of intuition. Just when the Germans began their attack, he painted an eagle, as if swooping down on its prey, and then there was the monkey picture representing the refugees. The picture of the goat represented the English waiting for the attack. And now the horse. He has a remarkable gift in drawing animals.

Satyendra: Here the horse has taken the classical pose.

Nirodbaran: Dr. Amiya Sankar in his planchette sittings was told by Vivekananda’s spirit that he wouldn’t have his realisation in this life, that he would die about twenty-two years later, and that one year afterwards he would be born again with Vivekananda. Sri Aurobindo would still be alive and in that life Amiya Sankar would have his realisation. “Is that true?” he asks. (There was a burst of laughter as the information was conveyed.)

Sri Aurobindo: Has he any justification for belief in these things?

Nirodbaran: He says he got two things right – one about the possibility of a sea-voyage. The spirit said “Yes” and it was correct.

Sri Aurobindo: Anyone could say that. Our Baroda instances are more striking than that.

Satyendra: How does he know it was Vivekananda’s spirit?

Sri Aurobindo: Quite so. Vivekananda’s spirit must have other things to do by now.

Nirodbaran: He said also that Amiya Sankar had been Sri Chaitanya’s playmate. (Laughter)

Sri Aurobindo: Was it found true? (Laughter)

Satyendra: Why should great souls come to such sittings?

Sri Aurobindo: What people wonder at is that they should come and talk all sorts of rubbish. These things, as far as they are not communications from the subconscient mind, are communications of lower forces, even vital-physical ones. I remember one instance. In Calcutta I went to attend a sitting. The spirit violently objected to my presence and said that it was painful to him. In another instance, the spirit was asked to prove his presence by eating a sandesh which was there. Somebody took hold of the sandesh and asked the spirit to take it from him by force. His hand got so twisted that he cried out in pain. Evidently something was there apart from the communication of his subconscient mind.

Purani: Moore has reviewed the second volume of The Life Divine.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but he hasn’t understood it. He wants me to go back to politics for the establishment of the New World Order, while I have said that it is not through politics that it will come.

Nirodbaran: He seems to have said that England will form the nucleus of the New Order.

Sri Aurobindo: If France had accepted England’s offer of joint citizenship, it might have been so.

Evening

Purani: The Italians have occupied British Somaliland. In the popular mind this may cause some loss of prestige for the British. People will say, “Even the Italians couldn’t be defeated?”

Sri Aurobindo: But the British didn’t want to defend that territory. They decided at the very start not to defend it. They say it is of no strategic importance. I expected them to withdraw; in fact I foresaw it. No, in war minor points must be sacrificed for greater ones. Egypt and Palestine are more important. I wonder if they have sufficient forces there.

Purani: Egypt wants to defend herself now. Such neutrality as Egypt’s is worse than belligerency.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. I have the impression that the British haven’t enough forces there. In Syria they have only 200,000 troops or so. Of course, it is the French defection that has exposed their flanks.

Purani: Yes, they relied on the French troops.

Sri Aurobindo: Gibraltar and the Suez are points of vital importance. England by itself can be defended, perhaps, but if these are lost then it will be dangerous for England.

Purani: If Spain doesn’t come in then Gibraltar can be defended.

Sri Aurobindo: That is the whole point.

Nirodbaran: Now that England has regained her prestige, Spain may hesitate to join Germany. In Alexandria the French have joined De Gaulle, it seems.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. (looking at Purani) Have you seen De Gaulle’s photo? He seems a strong man and young.