Nirodbaran
Talks with Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1
10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941
16 September 1940
Sri Aurobindo (smiling): England has destroyed 175 German planes.
Nirodbaran: A very large number, as on August 15th.
Purani: Yes.
Champaklal: It was also the 15th yesterday.
Purani: Anilbaran was asking, “How does the psychic carry its experiences into the next life?”
Sri Aurobindo: By the various subtle sheaths. After the dissolution of the body these sheaths preserve their experiences and they go to rest in their own planes after which they get dissolved. From these experiences the psychic takes up the essential elements that are necessary for the soul’s evolution in the next life. It is the psychic that chooses according to its need from its own inner world. It is not that the psychic takes up an entirely new body, mind, etc. or that it is once again the old personality that renews itself. You can see in the case of the Lamas that it is not the same person.
Purani gave an instance of how a Dalai Lama, as a boy, gave the correct details about a new hidden tea-bowl about which all others had forgotten.
Sri Aurobindo: I hear these Lamas die young.
Purani: About thirty or forty.
Sri Aurobindo: When one dies young, one comes back to life quickly and the memory remains fresh, as in that Mathura case. Very often one’s desires remain unsatisfied and attachments persist, while in old people desires have to a great extent been worked out.
Purani: In Tibet they have developed this occult science wonderfully well. (Purani gave some instances from Madame David-Néel’s book.) They call in a Lama during somebody’s death to help the passage of the soul through the vital world.
Sri Aurobindo: That is the most dangerous passage. It is this world of which people usually speak when they refer to heaven and hell.
Purani: By some process the Tibetans are able to awaken some flame in the heart and after that, even if one is kept immersed in ice, it does not affect one at all.
Sri Aurobindo: That is the Yogagni, I suppose. Here, only Kanai may be able to do that (Laughter), but unfortunately we haven’t sufficient ice to test it.
Purani: Instead of immersing him in ice, we can put ice on him.
Evening
Sri Aurobindo: The number of aeroplanes shot down is now 185!
Purani: Yes. It seems two French fleets have passed from west to east through Gibraltar. Perhaps they have been allowed by the British to proceed to Indo-China!
Tabouis has said that if the Italian navy could be destroyed, it would give a tremendous blow to the Axis.
Sri Aurobindo: That is my view also. If they could do that, they could separate Africa and occupy the whole of it.
Purani: She has also said that if the French had attacked the Siegfried Line, they could have broken through it.
Sri Aurobindo: That is what I thought. Of course they would have had to sacrifice a lot of men, but it wouldn’t have been as invulnerable as they thought.
Nirodbaran: Nolini Sen is still not clear about the selection of the individual in the supramental state. He says there will be individual centres and asks whether the individual, though he will work according to the truth of his being, won’t exercise some selection in the process. As each individual will work according to his own truth, there will be some selective process.
Sri Aurobindo: In the supramental state there will be individual centres of cosmic consciousness. The Supermind will work through the cosmic in these centres according to the truth of their being.
Nirodbaran: Is the condition of complete egolessness a supramental state?
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, when there is the fullness of the supramental state. In the intermediate stages there may be various ways of working.
Nirodbaran: Nolini Sen also speaks of individual truth of being. He says that since there will be various individuals, the truth of one will be different from that of another. So in their manifestation a certain selection will come in.
Sri Aurobindo: Selection is the wrong word. It does not apply. The Supermind will work in various ways harmoniously for one purpose, without any limitation. In the lower planes there are various possibilities and the ego bound by its limitations selects out of them. If one looks at the supramental state mentally, giving it a mental and vital character, one is likely to make mistakes.
Purani: One can say it is a specialisation.
Sri Aurobindo: Not even that. It is a fulfilment.