Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

31 December 1940

Dr. Manilal (as Nirodbaran was bending to touch Sri Aurobindo’s knee): I see a trident, Sir, on Nirod’s forehead.

Sri Aurobindo: A trident?

Dr. Manilal: Yes, Sir.

Nirodbaran: What does it mean?

Sri Aurobindo: It means that you are Shiva. (Laughter)

Nirodbaran (After a while): Some people want to know how to increase their receptivity.

Sri Aurobindo: The answer would be followed by “How to do that?” (Laughter)

Dr. Manilal: One can understand how to open the lid of a vessel. One just pulls and it comes off. But (touching his head) how to open here?

Sri Aurobindo: Just open it. (Laughter)

Dr. Manilal: Could you not smash our heads, Sir, as the blacksmith smashed Jupiter’s head in the Greek story?

Sri Aurobindo: What is that story? I don’t know of any blacksmith doing that.

Dr. Manilal: That is what is given in children’s books, Sir.

Sri Aurobindo: That may be for children. What I know is that Jupiter had a severe pain in his head. Suddenly his head burst open and Minerva came out of it.

Dr. Manilal: What about Nirod’s receptivity question, Sir?

Sri Aurobindo: You have to become quiet, become wide and open or become open and wide.

Nirodbaran: Is not wideness a result of quietness?

Sri Aurobindo: Not necessarily; one may be wide without being quiet.

Dr. Manilal: It seems to me, Sir, quietude of the mind is most important.

Sri Aurobindo: Not only the mind, there is the vital, then the physical – and (nodding his head) then the Inconscient. (Laughter)

Dr. Manilal: End of the story, Sir? (Laughter)

Sri Aurobindo: Yes! When the Inconscient is in a proper condition of quietude, you are able to receive.

Dr. Manilal: That would mean throwing away all disturbances.

Sri Aurobindo: Not all. There is a central quietness – when the stuff of the mind becomes quiet – a condition in which one can receive in spite of all disturbances.

Dr. Manilal: Am I receptive, Sir? (Laughter)

Sri Aurobindo: Your mind may be but your body is not.

Dr. Manilal: What percentage of receptivity have I, Sir?

Sri Aurobindo: These things don’t go by percentage. Besides, receptivity is infinite.

Dr. Manilal: How to know if one is receptive?

Sri Aurobindo: If you receive you know you are receptive. (Laughter)

Dr. Manilal: My shoulder is the same, Sir – painful as before.

Sri Aurobindo: That means it doesn’t receive and so is not receptive.

Evening

Dr. Manilal: They speak of a golden lid, Sir, above the head which covers the face of the Sun. Is it a matter of experience?

Sri Aurobindo: Of course.

Dr. Manilal: Is it in the subtle body that one feels these things?

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, one feels a sense of boring, drilling, hammering – so many things. Never had any such an experience?

Dr. Manilal: Yes, Sir. I had it, but long ago. It was marvellous, Sir, at the time. Even while going in a carriage I used to feel the descent of Ananda, Force, etc. Now all that is past history. (Laughter)

Sri Aurobindo: They were experiences in the mind. Never had any force descending into the vital?

Dr. Manilal: No, Sir!

Sri Aurobindo: You are closed in the vital then and, when the vital opens, you may be closed in the physical. (Laughter)

Dr. Manilal: Tragedy after tragedy, Sir. Experience of ascent and descent also stopped, Sir.

Sri Aurobindo: Why? Didn’t you find it interesting?

Dr. Manilal: Very interesting.