8 MARCH 1940 NIRODBARAN: Nishikanto has passed a distressing night. He says that whatever little faith and devotion he had has left him. Now the physical also, with which he wanted to serve the Divine, is out of gear. So he is getting depressed. SRI AUROBINDO: Why depression? The thing is to get cured. NIRODBARAN: He doesn't believe he will be cured. He was thinking he would go where his eyes took him. SRI AUROBINDO: In English they say: "To follow your nose." But what is his complaint at present? NIRODBARAN: Pain. Pain is constant though he doesn't feel it. (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: How is that? If he doesn't feel it, how can there be p

11 JANUARY 1941 There was some talk about Purushottam, a sadhak who had gone away. DR. MANILAL : Did he have any occult knowledge? SRI AUROBINDO: All his knowledge of previous births is humbug. What he had was some life-force which he could apply on the physical. DR. MANILAL : What does that mean, Sir? Page -1017 SRI AUROBINDO: You have to read The Life Divine for that. DR. MANILAL : How could he have this fall? SRI AUROBINDO: The physical mind. 12 JANUARY 1941 There was a long story narrated by Purani about the ex-Maharani of Baroda, how her boxes were detained and opened by a Muslim judge in Madras and handed over t

Pre Note Talks with Sri Aurobindo is a thousand-page record of Sri Aurobindo's conversations with the disciples who attended him during the last twelve years of his life. The talks are informal and open-ended, for the attendants were free to ask whatever questions came to mind. Sri Aurobindo speaks of his own life and work, of the Mother and the Ashram, of his path of Yoga and other paths, of India's social, cultural and spiritual life, of the country's struggle for political independence, of Hitler and the Second World War, of modern science, art and poetry, and of many other things that arose in the course of conversation. Serious discussion is balanced with light-hea

1 JULY 1940 SRI AUROBINDO: The Governor has stopped mobilisation because of the general confusion everywhere. Nogue's army does not want to surrender and in Syria the army is dissatisfied. They want to continue the fight and an invasion of Indo-China by Japan is imminent. PURANI: Applying the Monroe Doctrine? SRI AUROBINDO: But you can't dispossess them of their colonies by that Doctrine. America too has her colonies. PURANI: America may not like it. SRI AUROBINDO: That is another matter. It is apparent that the Pétain Government is breaking up the French Empire. NIRODBARAN: Why have they stopped mobilisation? Page -769 SRI AUROBINDO;

TALKS WITH SRI AUROBINDO Volume 2 ----------------------- 1 MARCH 1940 Nirodbaran was twisting a letter in his hands. Sri Aurobindo, hearing the faint noise, looked back.. SRI AUROBINDO: What's that? NIRODBARAN: Z's letter. He wants guidance. PURANI: Any more of Dutt's stories? NIRODBARAN: No more. He has stopped. SRI AUROBINDO: His story of my meeting him at Baroda Station may be true, as I used to go very often to the Station. And about his earthen tumbler incident, there may be some foundation to it, but I object to the shooting incident. Ask him the names of those two Marathi youths. There was no one I knew who was q

Talks with Sri Aurobindo Volume 2 Nirodbaran SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM PONDICHERRY

20 OCTOBER 1940 PURANI: Gandhi has declared his programme: he will start civil disobedience with twenty people of his Ashram - no outsiders — including two ladies, and he has even asked the Congress Working Committee members not to attend the meetings. SRI AUROBINDO: And if the Government doesn't arrest them? SATYENDRA: He may go through the whole of India and he will establish the right of free speech. SRI AUROBINDO: But only Gandhi's followers may not be arrested. Others won't be free. He is fighting for freedom for everybody. Is this the new movement? Nothing new there! PURANI: It seems Azad differed from Gandhi and was on the point of res

7 JULY 1940 PURANI: Baudoin is furious with the British. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. He says that this aggressive action of the navy is a blot on English honour — people who are entitled to honour! Have you heard that the banker and the Vice-Consul of Pondicherry are back? PURANI: No. SRI AUROBINDO: They are back and now the blockade will be withdrawn. Trains won't be stopped; the currency will be all right. PURANI: They must have settled with the Madras Governor. SRI AUROBINDO: Maybe. But nothing is known on this side. I mean, what the Pondy Governor has decided. DR. RAO : Weygand, in a statement appearing in today's paper, has laid t

15 SEPTEMBER 1940 SRI AUROBINDO (addressing Purani): Have you mentioned yesterday's points to Anilbaran? What does he say? PURANI : I have told him a few of them as there was not enough time. He is coming round and was especially impressed by the example of the machine. SATYENDRA: All these questions don't arise if one accepts Nirvana as the goal. SRI AUROBINDO (smiling): Yes. SATYENDRA: After all the explanations the mystery remains the same. SRI AUROBINDO: Because Truth is supra-rational, hence it must be mysterious. Buddha in that way was most logical. He was concerned with how things started and got stuck together and how to unstick t

10 AUGUST 1940 PURANI: It seems that when Dilip was in Calcutta, he took Bose to Baron and introduced him. That is how they know each other. SRI AUROBINDO: Dilip has no sense of these things at all. He thinks, "You are a good man, he is a good man, both should meet each other." (Laughter) PURANI: Hitler's Blitzkrieg has got a rude shock. Page -845 SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, to lose sixty planes in one attack is something. Italy also has got a knock in Libya. She lost about sixteen. NIRODBARAN : The British superiority in the air has now been proved. If only they can achieve equality in numbers. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, Hitler is superior on land