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19 DECEMBER 1939
SATYENDRA: Tagore can make a last attempt. NIRODBARAN: I think I too will again make an honest attempt to understand it. SRI AUROBINDO: But it is, I think, easier than books by Kant or other philosopher.
EVENING We learnt that N. R. Sarkar had resigned. So the talk centered on that, it being the most important news of the day. Purani suggested that he may now join theHindu Mahasabha and do something against the Bengal ministry. That led the talk to the Hindu-Muslim problem and the charges of the Muslims against the Congress Ministries. NIRODBARAN: Yes, but what about the charges of the Bengal Hindus against the Muslims? But strangely enough nobody knows or talks about that. SRI AUROBINDO: No; no Indian paper gives publicity to these things. They simply make a brief statement. NIRODBARAN: New Statesman says that there is no mishap in Bengal during this ministry. SRI AUROBINDO: because there are no riots? NIRODBARAN: Perhaps. SATYENDRA: Huq has now given a list of charges which are not charges, They are all vague and general. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. SATYENDRA: I don't see how any solution can be reached. Democracy doesn't seem to fit India, yet dictatorship is also not without its dangers. SRI AUROBINDO: Democracy is a failure. It suits only those people who are born to it like England and the Scandinavian countries. Even in America it has failed. That is a proof of its corruption. PURANI: It is astonishing how gangsters are so powerful there. SRI AUROBINDO: Not only are there gangsters, but intrigue and corruption even among the members of the the Senate. SATYENDRA: But who and what sort of dictatorship do you think will suit India? SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know; when a dictator is there he will start it .(Laughter)
Later, when Purani and Nirodbaran were alone with Sri Aurobindo, Nirodbaran spoke of Sarkar again. NIRODBARAN: Sarkar's resignation seems a little inopportune. SRI AUROBINDO: How? NIRODBARAN: If he had remained he could have exercised some restraint on the Muslim Ministers. SRI AUROBINDO: Do you think so? What about the other Hindu Ministers? Will they side with him? NIRODBARAN: I don't know. But two of them were supposed to belong to his group, though not politically. PURANI: If he can break the Ministry - SRI AUROBINDO: How? He may not be able to carry the other Hindu Ministers with him as he hasn't resigned due to a communal issue. PURANI: It seems Sarkar has resigned on the minority question. He objected to the last clause of the Government resolution which says that no further political development should be made without the full consent of the minorities. Nehru and Sir Stafford Cripps say that the British Government is not trying for democracy. SRI AUROBINDO: Then for what? PURANI: For its own self-interest. SRI AUROBINDO: That is ancient history. NIRODBARAN: Cripps seems to justify Russia's claim on Finland because Finland once belonged to Russia, though he doesn't approve of the method. SRI AUROBINDO: In that case England can claim Ireland because it was once under its rule and now establish naval bases there, The Finnish people are not Russian in origin nor were they ruled by their willing consent. These people say whatever they like. NIRODBARAN: Rajendra Prasad has said that the communal problem must be solved in any way possible. SRI AUROBINDO: In any way? Then it is very easy. All Hindus can turn Mohammedans. Jinnah would like nothing better. SATYENDRA: Yes, and then they can again become Hindus by Shuddhi. Rajendra Prasad also says that if it can't be solved, it must be given up once for all.
PURANI: Hasrat Mohani has turned against the Congress and become a Muslim Leaguer. I don't know why. If these Muslims could be made to contact Muslims of other countries they would then realise who is closer to them—the Hindus or their co-religionists in other lands. Turkey and Egypt do not care for these Indian Muslims. Azad realised from his bitter experience in Mecca that his religious brothers there were eager to exploit him. SRI AUROBINDO (after a lull): Kant's idea of freedom is said to be that one is free if one's actions are determined by oneself and not by others Bet then what about the laws of morality? They are made by others. And if one is supposed to act according to oneself and thus be free, one may disobey them. PURANI: Kant speaks also of heteronomy and gives the maxim that one must follow only that rule which one can make a universal law. SRI AUROBINDO: His idea of freedom is like the Sanskrit sloka: "Everything under one's control is happiness, everything under another's control is sorrow." But the Gita's idea is to go beyond oneself and one's own freedom. PURANI: Yes. Sisir Maitra concludes in his article that the Gita preaches: "Leaving all other dharmas, take refuge in Me." I don't see then why should be any controversy between Anilbaran and him. I was wondering if this sloka, "Be my-minded, my devotee." would do for a quotation for your chapter "The Triple transformation". Though it is more related to Bhakti, I thought it could as well as applied to psychic transformation because Bhakti may lead to it. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but Bhakti is only one aspect of the psychic. One can go to the psychic through the mind also, not only through the heart. NIRODBARAN: Through the mind also? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, the psychic produces the mental transformation too. As soon as the word "psychic" was heard, Satyendra began to smile to himself. What's the matter?" we asked him. He didn't reply but continued to smile. PURANI: Perhaps you are thinking, "Where is this psychic gentleman hiding?"
NIRODBARAN: That would be more in Dr. Manilal's vein. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): Dr. Manilal's psychic gentleman: too apt to take medicines for coming forth. SATYENDRA (after a while): The psychic or the Divine is like dictator. PURANI: How? SRI AUROBINDO: It is more like a constitutional monarch who allows you to do whatever you like. SATYENDRA: But it doesn't come out. SRI AUROBINDO: Because it waits for the consent of all the members of the Cabinet. (Laughter) SATYENDRA: God is very difficult to get. NIRODBARAN: He is also very clever in argument! EVENING Purani had given Sri Aurobindo Sisir Maitra's article on Kant and the Gita. Later he asked Sri Aurobindo how he found it. SRI AUROBINDO: He has overstressed the ethical part and left out the spiritual and explained the spiritual idea from the ethical standpoint. For instance, he has interpreted the Gita's idea of doing work as duty for duty's sake — an ethical view. Doing work from any other motive and without desire for its fruit is too subtle for the mind to understand. In the West, they don't make much distinction between the true self and the separative ego. If the separative ego is acting, why shouldn't one desire the fruit? SATYENDRA: The idea of doing work for duty's sake may be an influence of the Christian idea of service. SRI AUROBINDO: But the Christian idea is quite different from that. The Christians want to do what is God's will. That is a sort of religious law to them, while here it is a moral law, seen from the standpoint of Reason. SATYENDRA: Christians have the idea of going to heaven by doing their duty. SRI AUROBINDO: Their idea is more than that. They want to do what bears the seal of God's will on it, as they say. A religious law is there. When Reason got the upper hand on religion it began to
question religion's foundations, and the rationalists advocated the doing of duty from the ethical, the moral point of view, as a social demand. The rationalists have very fragmentary notions of what is involved. PURANI: This German steamer Columbus was suspected of supplying oil to German cruisers and submarines and that is why it has been scuttled. SRI AUROBINDO: It has been scuttled? PURANI:Yes. The commander of the Graf Spee scuttled it on his own. He has committed harakiri. SRI AUROBINDO: I thought Hitler had asked him to do it. PURANI: No, Hitler left the entire decision to him asking him to do what he thought best. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't understand these scuttles and suicides. NIRODBARAN: Perhaps the German naval authorities said that the ship must not fall into British hands. SRI AUROBINDO: But it could have been interned and then, after the war is over, could have been returned to the owner. That is the international law unless the British wanted to seize it as they did with other ships after the last war. But this time they are not likely to do the same because they prefer to be moral. SATYENDRA: They are professing too much. SRI AUROBINDO (addressing Satyendra): You have read that Hitler has proclaimed a naval victory over fishing boats and trawlers? (Laughter) SATYENDRA: Yes, Hitler speaks of his victories; his losses he suppresses or denies and invents all sorts of lies. Churchill seems to try to give true news. SRI AUROBINDO: He declares the losses correctly but about the gains he is silent because he says he doesn't want to give such news to the Germans. SATYENDRA : An English submarine torpedoed a German cruiser and Hitler denied it. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he said there was some explosion underwater. (Laughter) Page-319 NIRODBARAN: Somebody has said Hitler is such a liar that one can accept the opposite of what he says as true. (Laughter) Anyway, the war is getting more lively now. SRI AUROBINDO: That is only at sea. NIRODBARAN: In the air too, the recent attack on the German navy at Helgoland. SATYENDRA (after some time): Tomorrow is the 22nd. NIRODBARAN: Why do you mention it?. SATYENDRA: Jinnah will heave a sigh of relief from mourning. NIRODBARAN: Oh! PURANI: Malaviya has asked to observe it as the Gita day also. NIRODBARAN: Some members of the League have tried to tone down. SRI AUROBINDO: Jinnah himself has done it. NIRODBARAN: What struck me as inconsistent in the Bengal Government's war resolution yesterday has been noted by The Hindu too. The resolution calling for the immediate grant of Dominion Status says that no further political development should be made without the full consent of the minorities. SRI AUROBINDO: It means that the Dominion Status should make provision for the protection of the rights of the minorities, There is no inconsistency. They want to insert such a clause into the Constitution. But what does the resolution mean? That nothing should be given which doesn't satisfy the Muslims and everything should be given which satisfies them? Is it that? But then there are other minorities who will come in and say the same and their demands may be granted subject to the consent of the Muslims? PURANI: Looks like it. Some Muslim will say Urdu must be common language and Ramaswamy will say Tamil. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he will but he knows that it has no chance. PURANI: Vijay Raghavacharya has asked why these communal troubles in U. P., C. P. and Bihar occur. Why not in the Punjab and Bengal? And he asserts that these troubles are engineered by the Muslims themselves. SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so. Or the Muslims will perhaps say that their Government was very popular and there were no grievances and the Hindus fell in love with the Muslims. NIRODBARAN: Huq has called the Congress dishonest.
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he is a judge of honesty or rather an expert! PURANI: Sir Sikandar has gone to Bombay to see Jinnah, perhaps for some compromise between Congress and the League, and the Aga Khan also is starting for India. He too may try for some rapprochment. SRI AUROBINDO: It is no use unless they can get rid of Jinnah from the League. SATYENDRA: The Sindh Premier is trying to get Congress support for his Ministry but the Congress refuses. He is very anxious and he remarks that the Congress is throwing him to the wolves, meaning the League. But the Congress hesitates to give any support for fear of alienating the sympathy of the people by taking sides. SRI AUROBINDO: It is a stupid folly of the Congress. By lending support they will, on the contrary, help the people. PURANI: Some Madrasi has come to see X to learn Pranayama from him as he has written a book on the subject. X replied by signs that he has taken a vow of silence and couldn't teach. People will say that he is vowed to silence and yet has written so many books! SRI AUROBINDO: The vow is not supposed to apply to speaking through books. Carlyle not only wrote thirty-seven volumes but also spoke profusely on the value of silence! NIRODBARAN: Poets write poems on silence. SRI AUROBINDO: In 1914 when the Mother came here, there also came a Dutch painter who drew a sketch of me. At the end of every meditation, he used to say, "Let us now talk of the Ineffable." Then Purani brought in the subject of Sanskrit quotations. SATYENDRA: Sri Aurobindo is not known by orthodox Pundits as a philosopher, but as a Yogi.
NIRODBARAN: They say he doesn't know enough Sanskrit! SRI AUROBINDO (smiling): The editor of the Bengali paper made that remark. He also said that I don't know enough about sex; if I did, I wouldn't have started a mixed Ashram, because in a mixed Ashram, sex-energy interferes. EVENING NIRODBARAN: There is a lot of controversy going on regarding war aims. Have you seen Shaw's article? Is the declaration of war aims now going to be helpful? SRI AUROBINDO: Nonsense! How can war aims be declared now? Who is going to agree at present to the idea of a federation of Europe which Shaw is advocating? That is all the talk of intellectuals. Besides, Russia will want a Communist federation, Italy a Fascist one, Rumania another form and some will even want a federation of autarchy. I don't know that the German people themselves are keen about federation. Of course some form of it has to be found afterwards. We found nothing to talk about. So Purani suddenly tried to set the ball rolling by remarking, "Nirodbaran says his mind is getting dull and stupid." Nirodbaran hissed and tried to stop him. PURANI : He is threatening me. (Sri Aurobindo began to laugh.) SRI AUROBINDO: It is perhaps a Jadabhava¹ NIRODBARAN: He has been putting all sorts of things into my mouth. PURANI: Why? You didn't say that? NIRODBARAN: Yes, I did, but I didn't say the other thing the other day. What I mean is that I seem to be going down to another level of stupidity. It is not Jadabhava, because here only the mind is Jada and the rest is very active. SRI AUROBINDO: Then perhaps it is due to the effort of reading Kant and trying to understand him. (Laughter)
¹A state of inertia.
NIRODBARAN (after some time): What does Blake mean by self annihilation? SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know, perhaps annihilation of the ego. NIRODBARAN: And by "identity" does he mean perception of the One in all? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but that identity seems to include in it all things, as held at the end of the Chhandogya Upanishad. NIRODBARAN: Yes, Blake says that even physical love is quite justified if there is love and if one perceives identity in the other. He perceived identity in his wife but his wife didn't perceive this identity. In that case what is the solution? Their life seems to have been a tragedy because Blake loved someone else. PURANI: I thought that they were a very happy pair. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know why Middleton Murry says that. His wife was an ordinary Christian and it took her a long time to come to his standpoint. It was because she could not chime in with him that there was the tragedy. All the Christian mystic poets from Donne onward regard sex as permissible in the man-and-woman relation. SRI AUROBINDO (suddenly): Is Nolini Sen going today? NIRODBARAN: He has already gone. SRI AUROBINDO: His wife has sent a poem which she received in meditation. It is very good. Pavitra has seen the horoscopes of both husband and wife. He says they are complementary to each other. He has ability, the power of success. NIRODBARAN: Nolini Sen told me about his wife. About himself he said that he had some organising ability. The Government used to send him to places that were difficult to organise. So he has acquired a bad name as being strict and disciplinary. SRI AUROBINDO: He has a clear mind and seems to be an intellectual. NIRODBARAN: He was one of the three most brilliant students of his year, the first being Satyen Bose. He says there are only two people who understand Einstein's relativity theory.
SRI AUROBINDO: In India or the world? I thought there were five or six in the world. NIRODBARAN: I mean in India. One of the two is Bose and the other is Kothari. He further says that Bose pointed out some mistake in Einstein's thinking; his corrections have been accepted and scientists now speak of the Bose-Einstein statistics. SRI AUROBINDO: I see. That is very creditable for India. PURANI: What about Suleman? NIRODBARAN: Sen says Suleman also pointed out some mistakes. PURANI: No, Suleman refutes the whole theory. NIRODBARAN: Sen says the results of the last solar eclipse have not come out yet. They should have a bearing on the relativity theory. NIRODBARAN (after a lull): In the message on our New Year calendar the Mother says that this is a year of silence and expectation. We are wondering: expectation of what? SRI AUROBINDO: Of what is to come. NIRODBARAN: That is to say? SRI AUROBINDO: Whatever the expectation is for. NIRODBARAN: For individuals or in a general sense? We are all expecting the Supermind to come. SRI AUROBINDO: How can it come unless you are all prepared to receive it? PURANI: I thought it was more or less an individual matter, SRI AUROBINDO: What do you mean by "expecting the Supermind?" Do you expect the Supermind to come without any preparation? NIRODBARAN: No, I don't mean for myself I mean that the Supermind will descend into you and the Mother and perhaps a few disciples first and we shall be benefited by it. At least that is what I understood. SRI AUROBINDO: You want to be benefited without doing anything yourself. And do you expect the Supermind to do everything for you? That is supreme laziness. NIRODBARAN: I don't say that. I say that if at present in spite of my efforts I don't get satisfactory results and my progress is slow amd tardy, the Supramental Force, being the Highest Force, will help me to overcome my troubles in comparatively less time. That is what you wrote to me on the action of the Supermind.
SRI AUROBINDO: So you will wait for the Supermind's descent. That is like Moni's idea. He says that the Divine will do everything and one has nothing to do at all. Anyway, this used to be his idea. I don't know what he thinks now. NIRODBARAN: That is an extreme view. I don't go so far. I believe or I have been led to believe that the Supermind -will help me in every way possible. SRI AUROBINDO: Will it? NIRODBARAN: Won't it? As for Moni's idea, I can't say there is no truth in it if one sincerely believes in it and sticks to it. SRI AUROBINDO: Ah, sticks to it! NIRODBARAN: There are people who rely entirely on Divine Grace and have the faith that the Divine will do everything for them. It is not entirely wrong, is it? I think you have yourself written something like that, though, as you have said, such people are rare. SRI AUROBINDO: Faith and ideas are quite different. Ideas are of the mind and they are abstract. If they have no dynamic power behind them, they remain ideas till the end. SATYENDRA: I am also coming round to Moni's idea. NIRODBARAN: But yours is from a different point of view. You have tried. SATYENDRA: Unless the fellow within, as Y calls it, awakes, nothing can be achieved. One must have the hunger first. NIRODBARAN: Yes, that hunger also can be created by the Supermind. Here Sri Aurobindo smiled. Purani brought in some other topic, at the end of which both Satyendra and Nirodbaran looked at each other and broke into smiles. Purani thought it was as if Nirodbaran had thrown a jet of refreshing water on Satyendra. PURANI: Jetting the Supermind on Satyendra? SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, baptising him into the Supermind? EVENING NIRODBARAN: In The Hindu,s editorial on the defence forces of India it is said that there is not a single Bengali unit in India's land forces The majority are comprised of Punjab Muslims. SRI AUROBINDO: Muslims?
NIRODBARAN: Yes. SRI AUROBINDO: What land forces? The army? NIRODBARAN: Perhaps. SRI AUROBINDO: People say the Bengalis and the Madrasis are non-martial races. But it has been pointed out that the English conquered Bengal with the help of Madrasi sepoys, the United Provinces with that of Bengali sepoys and the Muslim Punjab itself with that of Hindu sepoys. And now they are all non-martial races!
NIRODBARAN: I had a letter from Nolini Sen. He speaks of visions of flowers and wants to know their significance. SRI AUROBINDO: What flowers? NIRODBARAN: A pink lotus closed and then opened by some invisible power. He asks if it is your Force. SRI AUROBINDO: You can write the significance. NIRODBARAN: But he wants the implications too. SRI AUROBINDO: The lotus would mean that the consciousness of the Divine is opening in him. NIRODBARAN: He calls it your Force because we know the pink lotus to be your flower and the white to be the Mother's. SRI AUROBINDO: Where does he see the lotus? NIRODBARAN: I think in the heart. SRI AUROBINDO: Then it is very good. It means his psychic being is opening. NIRODBARAN: Maybe, but seeing visions like that is not of much importance, is it? SRI AUROBINDO: There is more to it than that. He hears voices and gets inner guidance. NIRODBARAN: There are other flowers he speaks of. I am thinking: if he goes on asking about such things there won't be any end to it. (Laughter) Sen seems to have other brilliant brothers: they make a gifted family, I hear. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. NIRODBARAN: One brother who is an I.C.S. is said to be the most brilliant. SRI AUROBINDO: Then why did he go in for the I.C.S.-to waste himself?
NIRODBARAN: That is what Sen told him but his father seemed to be keen about it. The I.C.S. was an easy walk-over for him. SRI AUROBINDO: It is quite easy to pass the I.C.S. NIRODBARAN: He also had some interest in our direction I understand, but now— SRI AUROBINDO: Suppressed under the burden of the I.C.S. work? NIRODBARAN: Yes. SRI AUROBINDO: In that official routine work all the brilliant qualities are lost. There is no scope for them. At noon after Sri Aurobindo's writing had been finished, Nirodbaran showed him Sen's letter and Sri Aurobindo explained the significance of his visions of flowers. Then the Mother came. Nirodbaran told the Mother aqain about Sen's letter and said that he was much worried by thoughts and couldn't concentrate. THE MOTHER: Yes, he told me of that. Tell him not to worry. The more he concentrates on the trouble, the worse it will be.
PURANI: X has replied to the review by the Vedanta Kesari of his new book. The editor has also put in some footnotes. SRI AUROBINDO: What does X say? PURANI: He seems to say that the physical light and the inner light of the Yogi are the same light. SRI AUROBINDO: Is he speaking from his own experience? PURANI: He says so, and he quotes from the Veda and the Upnishads to support him in saying that God is light. The editor says that all light is from the Divine, of course, but the inner light of the Yogi is different from the physical light: it has not the same wave-length, as it were. Then about his recent change of views, X argues that if the spiritual journey entails a change of landscape as one climbs higher, he is not ashamed to admit his change due to the light of knowledge and experience. SRI AUROBINDO: That is also what Krishnaprem says. As one advances in consciousness from one stage to another, one has to change his former views in the light of his present knowledge.
NIRODBARAN: X is just like Y. He also says one thing and then contradicts it; so X isn't justified in calling him a humbug. SRI AUROBINDO: Does he call Y a humbug for that? I thought it was because his prophecies don't come true. NIRODBARAN: If one makes sweeping assertions and calls them the light of knowledge, that light can't very well be trusted. SRI AUROBINDO: Why not? (Firmly) When one experiences the personal God, one thinks that only the personal God exists. When one goes beyond that, one comes to the Impersonal realisation. When one transcends both, one comes to Absolute, of which the Personal and the Impersonal are aspects. NIRODBARAN: But then X will go on contradicting himself all the time. Today he praises Yoga and monasticism; tomorrow he damns Yoga and finds no truth in Sannyasa. SRI AUROBINDO: He is not speaking from experience. It is a matter of opinion. (After a pause) If he had a wider mind he would not say things like that and lay stress only on the faults and mistakes of monasticism, losing sight of its virtues. NIRODBARAN (after a while): Jyotin explains the symbolism of your poem "Trance" by saying that the star is the individual soul and the moon the universal. The storm is doubt. And when the doubt is cleared from the mental sky, the individual soul stands face to face with the universal. SRI AUROBINDO: Good Lord! I didn't know that I had put all that philosophy into the poem. Jyotin has built a big superstructure on a small poem. SATYENDRA: That is the commentator's job. PURANI: Tagore also says that critics give meanings to his poems which he never intended. He tells them, "They are simply poems. Why don't you take them like that?" SRI AUROBINDO: What I have described is a condition of inner experience. NIRODBARAN: Yes, but the symbols do stand for something, SRI AUROBINDO: I can't remember the poem, so I can't say anything. NIRODBARAN: You speak of a single-pointed star. SRI AUROBINDO: Telling me that is of no use. I must see the poem. What does Jyotin say about "The Bird of Fire?" NIRODBARAN: He says that it is also symbolic but that this one is an example of perfect symbolism.
SRI AUROBINDO: Why? NIRODBARAN: I don't know. SRI AUROBINDO: People read their own minds into a poem. It's like what they make of the Rigveda's anasah—the "flat noses" of the European commentators. All sorts of meanings are made out of it. NIRODBARAN (when Sri Aurobindo was about to lie down): Reviewers seem to be a funny race. One praises a book and another condemns it. SRI AUROBINDO: I find nothing extraordinary in that. NIRODBARAN: In the New Statesman and Nation Anthony West runs down Priestley's new book while the Manchester Guardian praises it. So also with Huxley's After Many a Summer. Anthony West calls it a spiritual failure. SRI AUROBINDO: West is a rationalist. He won't hear of mysticism. Anything that does not favour of rationalism is damned by him. NIRODBARAN: Huxley is already being called a Western SRI AUROBINDO: And a spiritual failure! PURANI: What does Huxley know of Yoga? NIRODBARAN: D says he had practised some Yoga and this is quite evident from his writings. SRI AUROBINDO: His book is here, you said. Well, you can read it and see for yourself.
EVENING Nirodbaran handed Sri Aurobindo the book in which the poem "Trance" had been printed. "What's this?" he asked. Then, on seeing the title Six Poems of Sri Aurobindo, he laughed out. SRI AUROBINDO (after reading the poem): I have explained everything in the poem itself. I speak of the star of creation, the moon of ecstasy and the storm-breath of the soul-change — that is, the upheaval before the change. The trance brings in a change of the outer consciousness and nature. There is no philosophy anywhere. (Shortly after returning the book) Let me have the book again. (Looking at the poem once more) There is a big printing mistake here. A hyphen has been put between "Self" and "enraptured". It makes neither poetry nor sense.
NIRODBARAN: I remember Amal told me the same thing when the book was out.
NIRODBARAN: I have been again trying to get intuition but no luck. SRI AUROBINDO (with a look meaning "Is that so?") After your last brinjal intuition? (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: Yes, but nothing comes. SRI AUROBINDO: That is because you lost your faith by that brinjal affair. NIRODBARAN: Nolini Sen began to have inner guidance as soon as he set his foot into Yoga. SRI AUROBINDO: He had been doing Yoga for some time. Only he had lost hold of it temporarily. SATYENDRA: Inner guidance in what way? NIRODBARAN: In his practical work. SRI AUROBINDO: In solving practical difficulties, I suppose. He has a mind which seems open to the intuitive faculty. Usually a man of action has a sort of insight which is half-intuition, while for a man of intellect intuition is difficult. His intellect thinks of various possibilities, saying this may happen, that may happen. NIRODBARAN: Does a man of action have no intellect? SRI AUROBINDO: He has one, but it does not come in the way of his action. He has a vital, not a mental, intuition about things and acts on it. I don't say he commits no mistakes but in most cases he turns out to be right. The English are so successful because they go by this vital intuition. Often they jumble things and make mistakes but in the end that intuition comes to their help and pulls them through. The French are logical; they think and reason. PURANI: The English now are thinking of actively helping Finland because they fear a German-Russian combination in the Baltic. SRI AUROBINDO: But how are they going to help Finland? The English require plenty of ammunition and military equipment for themselves. I don't know whether they have enough to spare.
NIRODBARAN: What they need more badly now is man power. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but still ammunition is wanted. NIRODBARAN (after some time): What am I to do now? Intellect comes in the way of intuition. Desire in the vital and the hard crust of the physical—everything resists. Resistance everywhere! SRI AUROBINDO: Well, get rid of the crust and the desire and quiet the intellect. SATYENDRA: But I find that Nirodbaran's vital is quiet—and his intellect too. Perhaps the desires are less so. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, is it all like that? NIRODBARAN: The trouble is that everybody sees my progress except myself. SRI AUROBINDO: Are you trying to apply intuition in a special way? NIRODBARAN: Yes, in my medical work. SRI AUROBINDO: Instead of limiting yourself to a special operation, why not try to have the faculty in a general way—in other fields also? NIRODBARAN: I am concerned only with medical work now. SRI AUROBINDO: But try it elsewhere too. NIRODBARAN: For instance, in thinking? SRI AUROBINDO: In everything. It is difficult to get intuition in a special subject, especially if one has no bent for that subject. You didn't have any particular love for medicine, did you? NIRODBARAN: I am afraid not. SRI AUROBINDO : Try, for instance, to find out what Satyendra will be doing next. (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: That will be difficult. I may be more correct regarding Champaklal. SRI AUROBINDO: Or, if you are a novel-reader, try to guess what will follow. Of course, it is easy for an expert reader to do this. (After a pause) Many people get intuitions without knowing it. NIRODBARAN: I know my difficulty. I came as a raw recruit to Yoga, PURANI: Recruits are always raw. NIRODBARAN: Not completely. SRI AUROBINDO: They may have had some combat experience among themselves!
SATYENDRA: Try to realise the Self first, and then everything will follow. SRI AUROBINDO: It will be automatic. SATYENDRA: Yes; the faculties will open by themselves.
NIRODBARAN: Hot water seems to have a stimulating effect on the hair cells. SRI AUROBINDO: How? NIRODBARAN: On your lower limbs I find a growth of hair which was not there before. SATYENDRA: Then Nirodbaran can try hot water on his own head. (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: I was thinking of trying it, but it makes the head so hot. SATYENDRA: Then why not try hot and cold? SRI AUROBINDO: Cold water may take away the rest of the hair! (Laughter) SATYENDRA: If Nirodbaran proves successful, we'll all try the remedy. NIRODBARAN: No chance of success. Getting bald is hereditary. SRI AUROBINDO: You mean it is the effect of being born bald? SATYENDRA: Scientists consider heredity to play a great part. NIRODBARAN: Perhaps they ascribe to heredity whatever they can't explain. SRI AUROBINDO: They are discovering so many wonderful rays. Why don't they discover something for baldness? NIRODBARAN: They have tried ultra-violet, but with no result. SRI AUROBINDO: It burns up whatever hair there is? Voronoff seems to have succeeded with his monkey-gland operation. Besides doing several other things, it grows hair. NIRODBARAN: I hope it does not grow hair everywhere - as on a monkey! (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: Not so far. If it did, it might grow a monkey tail too.
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