X GODS 4-4-1924 Disciple : In the Bhagwata there are descriptions of beings on the mental and other subtle planes. What influence is the Supramental yoga likely to exert on them when it is perfected ? Sri Aurobindo : What do you mean ? Do you refer to the mental in men or to beings who have no bodies but are living on the mental plane ? If you say that a plane is Supramentalised then all the beings on that plane also must be Supramentalised. Then by that time the Pushwala also may have his being transformed. You can't expect the Universal Law to change like that. These planes and the beings on them change in relation to you or in so far as they come in contact with you. But t

XI 15th August, 1923-1926 Sri Aurobindo spoke on the 15th of August 1923. Formerly we used to celebrate the event of my physical birth in a "vital" manner. There was the seed of the inner Truth in it, but the manifestation was vital. Now, I wish that if the day is observed it should be in keeping with the Truth it symbolises. You all know of the Supramental Truth that has to descend into our life. This day that Truth is symbo­lised. But there are several obstacles in the way of its coming down. There is the Mind and the mental ideas that grasp at the Truth coming from Above and try to. utilise the Truth for their own aims. There is, for instance, the Vital, or

VIII PSYCHOLOGY 10-7-1923 Disciple : When a man leaves his body, does his soul assume another birth at once ? Sri Aurobindo : It depends on what you mean by the "body" and by the "soul". Disciple : It is said that the soul has to take another physi­cal life in order to complete its evolution. Sri Aurobindo : What do you mean by "evolution" of the soul ? If you mean by the 'soul' the essential self then it requires no evolution. Disciple : What is the law of connection between the living and the dead ? Sri Aurobindo : Your question seems to imply that the physical manifestation is the whole manifestation. The body is merely a circumstance in the manifestati

III NON - VIOLENCE 28-3-1923 Disciple : There are some followers of the school of non- violence in Indian politics who want to prove that the Gita preaches non-violence. They depend on the Mahatma's interpretation of the Gita. Sri Aurobindo : Non-violence is not in the Gita. If, as some people, including- the Mahatma, say, the Gita signifies a spiritual war or battle only, then what of Apariharyerthe and Hanyamane same – "inevitable circumstance" and "body being killed" ? What of the Shoka – the sorrow – , for those who are dead ? To me such a reading seems the result of a defect in their mental attitude. They have not got the intellectual rectitude which can wait

V VEDIC INTERPRETATION 1923 The topic was Vedic interpretation. Sri Aurobindo   : The third and the fourth Mandala contain many subtle suggestions about the symbolism of the Veda. The hymns of Dirghatamas in the first Mandala are clearly mystic. The experience of the Rishis is common in general principles but it varies in detail. These details are hard to fix because you do not find any parallel to them in other hymns. And so, some­times you become helpless. The general idea of the functions of Agni is the same. He is kavi-kratu –  "one with a seer-will" or "one possessed of the seer-will". You have also to see the connection of Agni with Satya, the Truth. The goo

IV SADHANA 9-4-23 Disciple : Can one practise the Supramental yoga while remaining in the ordinary life ? Sri Aurobindo : It is true that the Supramental yoga accepts life but that does not mean life as it is at present, because the Supramental wants perfection and at present life is not perfect. Many fields of life are at present dominated by Ignorance. We want to change the whole mould of life. We want to gain the Supramental state in human evolution as the next higher step from the Mind. Now that there are signs of its coming we must try to bring it down into the physical being. It is comparatively easy to ascend to the Supermind. But, then, those who go up gener

INTRODUCTION The question which Arjuna asks Sri Krishna in the Gita (2nd Chap.) occurs pertinently to many about all spiritual personalities. "What is the language of one whose under­standing is poised ? How does he speak, how sit, how walk ?" Men want to know the outer signs of the inner attainment—the way in which a spiritual person differs outwardly from other men. But all the tests which the Gita enumerates are inner and therefore invisible to the outer view. It is true also that the inner or the spiritual is the essential and the outer derives its value and form from the inner. But the transformation about which Sri Aurobindo writes in his books has to take place in nature

Chapter II CONGRESS – POLITICS 7-3-1924 The Khilafat ended two days back (5th). Disciple : The Khilafat is steam-rollered. Sri Aurobindo : It is quite right that it should be gone ; the new republic seems thorough and solid in its working Disciple : I doubt if the Turks were right in taking the step because now the opinion of other Muslim countries would go against them. Sri Aurobindo : Opinion can go to the dogs ! It was not by opinion that Kamal defeated the Greeks ! Disciple : But would he be now popular in Turkey ? Sri Aurobindo : He does not care for popularity. Disciple : The allegiance of other Muslims to the Khilafat has all along b

VI EDUCATION May 1923 Sri Aurobindo : Does any one know anything about the Montessori method of child-education ? Disciple : The principle is to base education round the spontaneous activities of the child, i.e., primarily, round its sense-activities which have to be intelligently guided by the teacher. In fact, the child learns, the teacher does not teach in the old sense. Group-life furnishes occasions to inculcate social virtues in the child's mind.  Freedom of the child is the corner-stone of her system. The training centres round child-life by guided activities of the senses, i.e. the nervous system. Sri Aurobindo : The principle is all right. There are, I believe

XII MISCELLANEOUS The talk turned to the Andamans and the punishment of prisoners and jail-discipline. 6-10-1925 Sri Aurobindo : Was passive resistance by X effective in the Andamans ? Disciple : We were the first to resort to it and it had some effect because, I think, it was new there. Then batch after batch tried it but without much result. Sri Aurobindo : Were they organised ? Disciple : Oh yes ! Sri Aurobindo : What were the demands ? Disciple : The status of political prisoners, better food, ventilation, clothing. Sri Aurobindo : That is the difficulty. This kind of passive resistance fails to bring pressure upon the other party after som