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12 FEBRUARY 1940
NIRODBARAN: Yes, I have read of it in Romain Rolland. SRI AUROBINDO: Bertrand Russell is an advocate of this kind of companionate marriage, with freedom to do whatever one likes. NIRODBARAN: That is why he has divorced his wife and married his secretary. SRI AUROBINDO: Has he? I didn't know that. When? NIRODBARAN: Some years ago. PURANI: It came as a great shock to Dilip. Russell had spoken to him of his happy ideal married life. SRI AUROBINDO: I suppose it is like wanting to have vriddasya taruni barya¹ though the wife may not be barya. You know Maeterlinck did the same. In his old age he took up a beautiful young girl who was not at all intellectual and he forsook the wife who had inspired all his earlier works. He brought the girl home. The wife didn't object-but ultimately the girl drove her out of the house. EVENING Dr. Manilal had advised Sri Aurobindo to hang the injured leg from the edge of the bed. This was meant to increase the flexion of the knee. Sri Aurobindo did it for one day and then stopped. He said, "After finishing The Life Divine I'll take it up again." In the meantime Manilal once inquired from Gujarat if Sri Aurobindo had started hanging the leg again. To this Sri Aurobindo replied, "The Life Divine is still hanging." Now Nirodbaran announced that Manilal was due to arrive on the 10th or the 12th. SRI AUROBINDO: And I am going to start hanging my leg tomorrow. (Laughter) The last two chapters of The Life Divine were sent off today. SATYENDRA (laughing): Manilal seems to strike terror into you. (Sri Aurobindo laughed.) When is Dr. Rao coming? Both will meet now. NIRODBARAN: Dr. Rao has got badly entangled in the State. SRI AUROBINDO: He will carry pleasant memories of his State service just before retirement. Now his sympathy for the Congress Government will increase. SATYENDRA: He seems to be hanging too. ¹Old man's young wife. Page-442 SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, and the Personal Assistant is throwing stones at him in an attempt to dislodge him. NIRODBARAN: We thought this promotion of his was a divine but he is having plenty of thorns. SRI AUROBINDO: Divine gifts are like that. SATYENDRA: It may divine gift because whatever desires he may still have will be driven out by it. Tomorrow, by the way, is 13th, the day of catastrophes. SRI AUROBINDO: After all, nothing may happen. NIRODBARAN: Or perhaps some more patrol activity on the western front. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, the Germans will claim to have brought down 300 planes and England will deny it. When the others had gone, Purani brought up again the subject of Non-Being. PURANI: Did you say the other day that by following the affirmative way one also arrives at Non-Being? I was not very clear about it. SRI AUROBINDO: (with a surprised look): No. Only by the negative path you arrive at Non-Being, or what the Gita calls the Indeterminate. As I said, it is the same as in Taoism and Buddhism. But it is not really Nothing. What we can say is that no attribute of Being can be posited of it. Taoism says that Non-Being is Everything rather than Nothing. By the affirmative path you come through Supermind to Sachchidananda which is both static and dynamic, while through the negative path you come to Non-Being. PURANI: Then the the negative path doesn't lead to Sachchidananda. SRI AUROBINDO: No. NIRODBARAN: Is Non-Being the final stage of the negative path or does one pass through it to something else? SRI AUROBINDO: Non-Being is only a term of the mind to express the Supreme Existence. It is the Buddhists' way of expressing the Supreme they contact. In reality it is nothing but an aspect of the Supreme. What is called the Indeterminate is not really indeterminate. It can be called so because it is not limited or confined to any one determination, not because it is incapable of Page-443 any determination. That is what I have tried to show in The Life Divine. PURANI: In fact, it is the source of infinite determination. How is Non-Being related to the Supermind, etc., of the affirmative way? SRI AUROBINDO: Both are gates to the Absolute. Non-Being is an aspect of the Absolute. When you enter the Absolute you can't describe it. PURANI: Jayantilal's friend was asking if the inner mind, inner vital and physical are psychic in their nature. SRI AUROBINDO: No, they are supported by the psychic. These inner parts can have good and bad things, both light and darkness. PURANI: The psychic coming to the front acts through them? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. PURANI: He was also asking how the six chakras are related to the three parts of the being—the mental, the vital, the physical. SRI AUROBINDO: In fact, there are seven chakras. But you can take eye and throat together, and also heart and navel, and the last two centres as one. NIRODBARAN: If there was a medical chakra, I would try to open it. SRI AUROBINDO: In that case you should call in Dhanwantari or Ashwinikumar. PURANI: R says he is Dhanwantari. NIRODBARAN: If I call him, he will come then. SRI AUROBINDO: He will sit on the top of your head and swear at you. (Laughter) R. N. wrote an English poem for the special number that the Indian Express will bring out on February 21. The poem was given to Sri Aurobindo by Purani. SRI AUROBINDO: (after, reading it): How can he rhyme "era" with "aura"? NIRODBARAN: Modern rhymes, I suppose. Dilip was surprised that a poem with so many metrical errors was being sent for publication. Page-444 PURANI: Nolini has kept it back. Of course R. N. doesn't know of it yet. SRI AUROBINDO: It is not a poem at all. His French poems are very beautiful. That is because he has training from the Mother. In English he has no training. SATYENDRA: He is a very prolific writer, I hear -with a great flow. SRI AUROBINDO: A tremendous flow. "Flow" is too mild a term. The energy is tremendous. SATYENDRA: He has written many books in Tamil. He is considered a great Tamil writer. NIRODBARAN: Dilip says his English is very bad. SATYENDRA: He has written an English book on Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. It contains everything-chapters on Asanas, on Pranayama, etc. SRI AUROBINDO: It is not on my Yoga in particular. It is just on Yoga. His English is Tamil English. One must have the true English style to make things effective. SATYENDRA: He always speaks in superlatives. But he seems to be a great figure. He has many admirers and followers in South India. NIRODBARAN: You must have seen in yesterday's Hindu the the review of an annual of English literature. It is a symposium of many writers of the British Empire. From India four names have been chosen- one Kashi Prasad Ghose, Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu and yourself. Do you know this Kashi Prasad Ghose? SRI AUROBINDO: No. Who is he? NIRODBARAN: Only poets have been included, and the Indian selection has been made by an Indian professor. SRI AUROBINDO: I wonder which poems of mine he has taken. Does he not mention Harin or my brother? NIRODBARAN: No. SRI AUROBINDO: Then I don't understand the rationale of the selection. Sarojini is alright. But, except for a few things, Toru Dutt does not come to much. And, if Toru can be included, surely Harin and Manmohan ought to be. They are better writers than she. If Romesh Dutt still alive, he would have protested against his exclusion. He could have said, "If Toru, .why not Romesh too?" NIRODBARAN: The Hindu reviewer has complained that only poets have been mentioned and not prose writers when there are many good English prose writers in India. Page-445 SRI AUROBINDO: I don't see a single really good prose writer. NIRODBARAN: The Hindu says there are some among the moderns. SRI AUROBINDO: Does it mean Nehru and Gandhi? NIRODBARAN: I don't know. SRI AUROBINDO: They are good, but they can't be ranked as literary prose writers. NIRODBARAN: What about Amal? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but he is not known. NIRODBARAN: Nor has he written much. SRI AUROBINDO: No. SATYENDRA: But his style seems to have a sense of effort. PURANI: Yes, it seems to give an impression of hammering. SATYENDRA: Hammering may be allowed but there should not be any sense of effort. SRI AUROBINDO: He writes in the Victorian style. NIRODBARAN: Yes, it is not a modem style. SRI AUROBINDO: No. SATYENDRA: Radhakrishnan seems to have a modem style. SRI AUROBINDO: No, he also has a Victorian stamp. NIRODBARAN: People call Sri Aurobindo's style heavy, while according to them Nehru is the best writer. PURANI: If the "best" writers wrote on philosophy instead of topical subjects, people would find them difficult too. SATYENDRA: Amal, before he first came here in 1927, brought out a book of poems which, I hear, had to be suppressed. SRI AUROBINDO: Or did it suppress itself ? (Laughter) SATYENDRA: The publishers didn't realise beforehand what sort of a book it was and when it came out they felt scandalised. PURANI: Amal told me about this book when he first came. He was persuaded by his friends to stop its circulation. Otherwise he would have lost his name. His motto was, like Oscar Wilde's, to write on anything he liked. SRI AUROBINDO: It depends on how you write. Wilde would have been the last man to approve of writing anything in any way. PURANI: I mean writing about erotic things. SATYENDRA: In English books whenever they have to say anything erotic they put the French word for it, not the English. Page-446 Take the Decameron. In the English translation there are so many things in French. SRI AUROBINDO: I am reminded of Gibbon. Whenever he wanted to quote anything which might offend the current taste, he used its Latin form. But in English there are more outspoken things than in Boccaccio's Decameron. Many English novels deal with erotic, even vulgar, matters. NIRODBARAN: Why then did they make such a fuss over Lawrence' Lady Chatterly 's Lover? SRI AUROBINDO: Because it made a public noise. The English people's puritanism, I suppose, came out against it. PURANI: In French such things are quite commonly said now. People have become accustomed to them. SRI AUROBINDO: In France it has always been so. Except in England and America you find free expression of them everywhere. Our ancient literature also dealt with them and nobody took any particular notice. The English write of them more crudely than the French - as a reaction, I suppose, to the suppression. It is during the Puritan and Non-conformist period that people suddenly became self-conscious and felt ashamed.
EVENING
SRI AUROBINDO (after trying out flexion of his knee, as medically advised): Can't see if the flexion is increasing. It is a very slow process. SATYENDRA: Yes, Sir. Something like the opening of Nirod's physical crust. SRI AUROBINDO: What? NIRODBARAN: Satyendra is giving an analogy. He means that your knee-flexion is as slow as the opening of my physical crust. (Sri Aurobindo laughed.) SATYENDRA: N is all the time muttering about his crust. PURANI: He is trying to open his medical chakra to get some intuition. SRI AUROBINDO: Or the medical plane? NIRODBARAN: No, not plane. I said that if there was a medical chakras I would try to open it and get some intuition. Page- 447 SATYENDRA: If you can open the other chakras they will do the job you want. SRI AUROBINDO (after laughing): It depends on what intuition is wanted. There are many kinds of intuition: vital intuition, heart intuition and others. NIRODBARAN: Vital intuition is mixed. I want a pure intuition which can be had with comparatively greater ease. SRI AUROBINDO: Vital intuitions are sometimes extremely correct and pure. Animals are guided by them—animals and Englishmen. Then there is physical intuition. SATYENDRA (after a long pause): The l3th is passing away, but nothing has happened. The astrologers have proved faulty. Of course, something has happened to me. SRI AUROBINDO: What is it? SATYENDRA: I had a knock. (Laughter) Modern architecture is going in for everything plain, sharp and clear-cut. (Puzzled look on all faces) That's why I got the knock. The sharp edge of my bed gave it. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): You can call it a modernistic knock. SATYENDRA: Purani also had a knock some time back. PURANI : Yes, and it is still giving me pain. SRI AUROBINDO: Purani! Oh, Purani has an athletic movement. He knocks against anything and everything. He would even knock against the Mannerheim Line. (Laughter) PURANI: Some Chakravarthy, a final year medical student, has written to you through Nolini that his father Bhuban Mohan Chakravarthy had been your Bengali teacher. SRI AUROBINDO (extremely surprised): How? When? Where? PURANI: That is the mystery. SRI AUROBINDO: My only Bengali teacher was Dinen Roy unless he had another name. PURANI: "Chakravarthy" and "Roy" are a little far off from each other. SATYENDRA: Besides, how can he be the son of that teacher? Sri Aurobindo has been here for a long time. Page- 448 SRI AUROBINDO: That won't be a test, for he could have been a teacher long before the son was born.. PURANI: He writes that he can produce a most authentic proof -a letter you have written to his father. SRI AUROBINDO: I? PURANI: Yes, and he can send the letter if you want. He has asked for a loan from you to carry out his studies. He will repay you afterwards. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, that is the reason! (After some time, to Purani) Have those articles been sent off to the Indian Express for the special number of February 21? PURANI: I don't know. I shall ask Nolini. Is there anything wrong? SRI AUROBINDO: Radhanand, in his article on the Mother, has claimed that she is an Incarnation. That is something we have not said publicly. PURANI: Radhanand said that whatever he had written had been gathered from talks, etc. SRI AUROBINDO: The body of the article is all right. But at the beginning he makes this claim. PURANI: We can then send a modification. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. State simply that it is the birthday of the Mother. Two days later we saw that the article was published as it was, along with a poem by Radhanand. In the morning the Mother told a very interesting story to Sri Aurobindo. THE MOTHER: J has written that she and her son want to go on an outing for a few days, stay in a bunglow and return just two or three days before Darshan. She wants to know what I would say. I have seen that she doesn't want to know. Already they went once and found that the bungalow was occupied by another European. Finding no room they came back and said that they would start again after few days. I clearly saw that if she went again some accident would happen to her and she would miss the Darshan as she had done before. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh., did she miss it once before? THE MOTHER: Yes, it was when she went to see her son. They don't take a hint. Then she wrote to me that they couldn't go as they
Page-449 couldn't get hold of a chauffeur. I was tempted to write to her that the Divine Grace (here the Mother spoke in French; the sense seemed to be that the Divine Grace had saved her.) NIRODBARAN: Sotuda has brought the news that Nishikanto's book is selling now. PURANI: It is still too soon to expect any sales. No reviews have come out yet, though reviews don't influence the sale. SRI AUROBINDO: In England they do. Plenty of people read the reviews. Any book recommended by the Book Club has a good sale. EVENING PURANI: Jinnah is getting impossible. He says that India is one country but with two nations in it — Hindu and Muslim. SRI AUROBINDO: Two heads on one body? Why two only? As the Hindu points out, there are other minorities that can also claim to be separate nations—five or six heads! PURANI: Vallabhbhai Patel says that the British Government is keeping up the division by playing one party against the other. SRI AUROBINDO: What else does he expect? So long as there are different parties, the Government will act like that. If they don't do so but simply leave India, the Russians may come in and do the same thing. NIRODBARAN: I met Charu Dutt this morning. He seems to be an interesting man. SRI AUROBINDO: In what way? NIRODBARAN: Well, the way he talks, the unlimited stock of anecdotes he seems to have. He was saying that when they were starting the Bande Mataram C. R. Das insisted that Bipin Pal should be the editor, while they insisted that Sri Aurobindo should be the Page-450 editor. Dutt told Das, "We have persuaded him to come from Baroda to take up the editorship of the paper." SRI AUROBINDO: What? Who persuaded me? I came on my own to start a nationalist movement. There was no C. R. Das at that time. In fact, Bipin Pal had himself started the paper with Rs. 500 as capital. When he went on a tour of West Bengal he asked me to edit it for the time being. I had accepted the principalship of the National College for Rs. 150 a month. Tilak was coming to Calcutta as President of the Congress. We wanted to have a militant programme and our own organ. So I called a meeting of the extremist leaders - there we decided to have a paper and Subodh Mullick offered to finance it. Shyam Sundar and Hem Ghose were not pleased with Pal's editorship. They said he was too moderate and when I was dangerously ill — the illness almost took me away — they published my name as editor without my consent and in Pal's absence. I called them and remonstrated strongly. They said they wouldn't have anything to do with the paper if Pal remained editor, and so he was pushed out. NIRODBARAN: Dutt also said to Das, "We have brought Sri Aurobindo from Baroda almost against the Maharaja's wishes. The Maharaja is coming to the Congress. What will he say? SRI AUROBINDO: Which Congress ? How could he attend the Congress? PURANI: Perhaps some Industrial Congress or Exhibition. Some such thing was taking place at that time in Calcutta. SRI AUROBINDO: In Calcutta? PURANI: I am not sure if in Calcutta. But on that side. SRI AUROBINDO: Dutt seems to have a strong imagination. He can't be entrusted with writing my biography. I think it should be made a rule that nobody shall write a biography without the consent of the man. EVENING NIRODBARAN: X has suddenly developed a soft corner for Anilbaran. He was saying to Dutt, "Have a talk with him. He is the one man whom we can present to others." SRI AUROBINDO: Because of his shining face? (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: He has made surrender practicable in his own life X says. One day Anilbaran asked X to sing and then gave a high Page-451 tribute to his songs—psychic, wonderful development, etc. that day perhaps X softened down. (Sri Aurobindo began to laugh.) CHAMPAKLAL: Anilbaran is extremely clever. He knows very well how to please a man. Looking at my pictures, he would exclaim, "O Champaklal, it is wonderful, marvellous!" Then looking from increasing distances of one foot, Two feet and three feet would go on, "Admirable, excellent!" SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): And you were pleased in spite of yourself. (Laughter) CHAMPAKLAL: Now I don't believe what he says. Akbar Hydari told him, "Only the Mother shows my faults and mistakes; everybody else praises me." Anilbaran asked me, Was Hydari hinting to me?" (Laughter) SATYENDRA: Where did he learn this art? SRI AUROBINDO: You mean it may be a Yogic Sidhi. (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: It seems Tagore was asked his opinion of The Life Divine and he said, "All that about sadhana in solitude I don't understand." Charu Dutt replied, "How is that? You yourself had to retire to a boat to write poetry. And I have seen you meditating all alone in the early morning. Then how can you make that remark? Can you write poetry in the market-place? SRI AUROBINDO: I was doing Yoga even during my political activity. Solitude is only a temporary period in sadhana. NIRODBARAN: Dutt had a discussion with Tagore over Nishikanto's book Alakananda. Tagore's point is that he can't believe that a man can remain unmoved and calm and tranquil amidst pain and suffering, sorrow and distress. If a man falls from a height, how can he escape being hurt?" he asks SRI AUROBINDO: It is not a question of being hurt. The question is of remaining unmoved and unshaken by the hurt. NIRODBARAN: Tagore himself in Prabasi speaks of unpurterbed peace. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but that should be the ideal, it is not realisable in life: that is perhaps his view. NIRODBARAN: But he says one must have it. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, have it as an ideal. NIRODBARAN: Am I to believe in the long period of his life he has not met a single man like that? SATYENDRA: He may not have. Page-452 SRI AUROBINDO: Why shouldn't he have? If he hasn't he should be sent to Finland and he will see many people there remaining calm and tranquil in the midst of all knocks and attacks. NIRODBARAN: Tagore says Nishikanto's poetry is not for the mass, that it is not within their experience. By 'mass' he means himself and a few hundred people like him, Dutt said, while the rest, like Dutt himself, understand it quite well. Another funny thing Dutt said was that Nishikanto could have written equally well in Shantiniketan and with better substance too. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, substance which the mass would understand, perhaps. NIRODBARAN: It is reported by Dutt that, apprehensive of a big row at the Surat Congress and the risk of physical injury to you, your friends made special arrangements with Barin to keep you safe. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know about any row. A Maratha leader-a lieutenant-came to me and asked me whether they should break the Congress. I said, "You must either swamp it or break it." They couldn't swamp it as the other party was too strong in number. So they broke it: There was no question of any row. I had very little personal contact with Dutt. I think I met him and Mullick first at Thana. I mixed intimately with Mullick. Dutt was most of the time occupied with his judgeship; he was known as a revolutionary judge. NIRODBARAN: People say you had three very intimate friends. One of them is dead, one still alive. We don't know about the remaining one. SRI AUROBINDO: One was Deshpande who was very intimate: he is dead. Madhavrao was another: he is also dead. Who was the third? PURANI: Kasherao? SRI AUROBINDO: Kasherao was not so intimate. NIRODBARAN: Dutt speaks of going back once more and then coming to stay here. SRI AUROBINDO: I hear he wants to end his last days here which I don't approve of .This is not Benares. Page-453 SATYENDRA: But if people want to come here for that purpose, Sir, why should you object? CHAMPAKLAL: A's mother came with that object. NIRODBARAN: There is a precedent then. But it will be terrible for us. We can't welcome them. SRI AUROBINDO: Nirod will be presiding over the deaths of people. They say in English, "Dying on the Doctor's hands." It will be on Nirod's hands. Purani brought a collection of Nandalal Bose's and Abanindranath Tagore's paintings for Sri Aurobindo's inspection SRI AUROBINDO (after seeing one or two of Abanindranath's): Obviously, on the whole he is a greater PURANI: Jayantilal says that in some individual paintings Nandalal has shown greater genius, and he considers him potentially a greater artist than Tagore but his potentialities haven't fulfilled themselves. SRI AUROBINDO: Abanindranath has more force of imagination and a greater power of expression. PURANI: Jayantilal says that he doesn't hold the modernist view of art. SRI AUROBINDO: Art for the mass? PURANI: Yes, he is more aristocrat and conservative. How do you find Gaganendranath Tagore? SRI AUROBINDO: He has rather brilliant fancy than true imagination. Sometimes he is imaginative, but mostly he is fanciful. In Bengal art, these are the three great artists. PURANI: Gandhi is now going to Shantiniketan. It seems the tie between Gandhi and Tagore will get stronger now. You know that it was through Gandhi that Tagore will get stronger now. You know that it was through Gandhi that Tagore got Rs. 60,000 for his Shantiniketan. When Gandhi went to Delhi and saw that Tagore had come there at such an old age to collect money, he said to him, "You go back. I will arrange for the money." And he asked Birla to pay the sum. In America people generously donate money for such public things. Page-454 SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. NIRODBARAN: But in America people who give away their wealth are businessmen. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but they know something of life too. PURANI: Gandhi has come out with a strong comment on Zetland's statement. He says, "If such is the mentality of Englishmen I don't see why I should pray for their victory." SRI AUROBINDO: I see! Zetland is making blunders. If he had left it to Linlithgow, he would have managed it much better.
Dr. Manilal arrived at 10.00 a.m.; he made pranam to Sri Aurobindo and asked about the injured leg, for which he had advised "hanging" from the knee to help the flexion. SRI AUROBINDO: The leg is hanging very well. DR. MANILAL: I have brought some Ayurvedic medicine for you. I got it from a Madrasi lady who is an automatic writer and has great bhakti. She keeps your photo and Ramana Maharshi's and goes into trances. In her planchette sittings, some Rishi comes and dictates to her. I asked her about the defective flexion of your knee and she gave me this medicine, which is quite harmless—it is white mustard and raktapillai. She says your knee will be all right in six days. The treatment is prescribed by a Rishi. SRI AUROBINDO: Very kind of the Rishi. DR. MANILAL: I got a prescription for myself too. It is rice-water and flour of dal (lentil) to be poured on the head. It will cure headache and blood-pressure. After the sponging of Sri Aurobindo had begun, Dr. Manilal started the talk. DR. MANILAL: The late Gaekwad wanted to have translations of English books into Gujarati. The word "jailor" was rendered karagrihadhikari, the "superintendent of jail" was rendered karagrihadyaksha and so on. Sometimes it is very difficult to understand what is meant. They have to put English equivalents in brackets. Page- 455 PURANI: But in former times people easily understood such words as amatya, Suba, etc. DR. MANILAL: Now Suba is more easily understood. But when they write Mahasabha for Congress, I take it to be Hindu Mahasabha. SRI AUROBINDO: Why? You can then take Congress as the American Congress. (Laughter) Even in England it was not always easy. The word "telegraph", for instance, was not at all easy at the beginning. By constant use words become familiar. So there is no reason why one shouldn't have one's own language. DR. MANILAL: At present Urdu words are much favoured. SRI AUROBINDO: When we have Sanskrit, why should we leave it and go to Urdu? DR. MANILAL: What about a word like "collector" Isn't the Urdu equivalent —jilladhisha — preferable? SRI AUROBINDO: The English word "collector" is itself far better. DR. MANILAL (after a while): I find The Life Divine very difficult, Sir. SRI AUROBINDO: What is the difficulty? The language or the thought? DR. MANILAL: It is the language that I can't follow. Can't it be made easier? SRI AUROBINDO (smiling and shaking his head) : Ask the Grace of God to aid you. (Laughter) PURANI: The language is not the difficulty, and it can't be made any easier. It is the thought that is difficult to follow. Some people find it very easy. SRI AUROBINDO: Sisir Mitra is one. He found the book very clear and remarked that after reading it there could be no questions left. PURANI: Quite so. One may not accept the conclusions but one has to admit that all arguments and questions have been answered. SRI AUROBINDO (to Manilal): You have to wait for some translations into Gujarati then. DR. MANILAL: Translations are even more difficult -if Purani, who is a translator, doesn't mind my saying so. PURANI: No. I don't mind. I know. Page-456
DR. MANILAL: I understood Purani's original writings better than his translations. SRI AUROBINDO: Have you read Kant? (Laughter) DR. MANILAL: No, Sir! PURANI: After Kant you would realise how easy The Life Divine is. NIRODBARAN: Don't worry, Dr. Manilal, I am in the same boat as you. PURANI: Many doctors will be in it. . CHAMPAKLAL: But Rajangam finds The Life Divine easy. He says that one shouldn't read anything else except this book. He is in ecstasies over it. PURANI: I also find it very clear. SRI AUROBINDO: One should have a little knowledge of philosophy. What I have tried to give in the book is a metaphysical foundation of Yoga and a new view of life. Any book of philosophy has to be metaphysical. Even then Haridas Chaudhuri writes that some people may consider it dogmatic—lacking in enough argumentative dialectics. DR. MANILAL: But Vivekananda's books on Yoga are very easy to follow. SRI AUROBINDO: His books are made from speeches and he speaks of what everybody ought to know. DR. MANILAL: He is a philosopher also. SRI AUROBINDO: Philosophers may not accept him as one. NIRODBARAN: He doesn't go into the principles of things and the various arguments pro and con. SRI AUROBINDO: No. (To Dr. Manilal) As for The Life Divine, it is not the language but the thought-substance that may be difficult to follow. If I had written about the Congress in the same language, then you would have understood. (Laughter) PURANI: One has to go on reading and reading. The first reading may be very dry and difficult. DR. MANILAL: Yes. That was also the case with midwifery. When I first read the book not a single word entered my head. Afterwards, it became my greatest favourite. SRI AUROBINDO: So The Life Divine may take the place of your midwifery. . NIRODBARAN: Another difficulty besides understanding is that of keeping it all in the memory. Page-457
SRI AUROBINDO: That is a different matter. It depends on the mind's capacity to retain things. V will understand and remember everything, I suppose. NIRODBARAN: And also add much of his own. SATYENDRA: A commentator can do that. SRI AUROBINDO: I read many commentaries on Shankara but not a single one agreed with the other. Some were even contradictory in themselves. DR. MANILAL: To go back to my medicine, will you try it? NIRODBARAN: The time-limit of six days makes me all the more special of its efficacy. Why not first try on yourself the medicine prescribed for your own trouble? SATYENDRA (who had come in after the medicine had been talked about): What has been prescribed for Dr. Manilal? Dr. NIRODBARAN: Rice-water to be applied. SATYENDRA: Applied where? SRI AUROBINDO: On his head. Not for his hair! (Laughter) The medicine has been given by a Rishi through the planchette. It will cure Manilal's headache and blood-pressure. DR. MANILAL: The lady who works the planchette is very devotional and one feels an atmosphere of peace at her place. After one asks questions, she gives the blessings of Panduranga. That means that one should stop. SRI AUROBINDO: Did she bless you? DR. MANILAL: Yes, Sir. SRI AUROBINDO: After your question? DR. MANILAL: Yes, Sir. NIRODBARAN: You asked only one question? DR. MANILAL: No; I asked two more, but they are personal. NIRODBARAN: Ah! Let us hear them. CHAMPAKLAL: Are they about some future fulfilment? SRI AUROBINDO: He is keeping the interesting parts secret. DR. MANILAL: No, Sir. There can be nothing secret from you. But if I speak of them I may lose faith. CHAMPAKLAL: But does a prophecy's success depend on telling or not telling it? If it is to come true, it will do so in any case. SRI AUROBINDO: He may lose the consolation of mind which comes from faith in the future. Page-458
DR. MANILAL: You said last time about a disciple that when he spoke of his experiences to his Guru, the experiences stopped and the Guru said, "The Devil has caught hold of you." SRI AUROBINDO: "I"? I don't remember. (After a while) Yes, I remember now. It was about a Sannyasi in the Ramakrishna Mission. DR. MANILAL: Lele also said something like that to you. And you said you would then surrender to the Devil. SRI AUROBINDO: That was a different matter. I didn't say that to him. I said it to myself: "You have handed me over to the Divine and if as a result of that the Devil catches hold of me, I will say that the Divine has sent the Devil and I will follow him." By now the sponging was over and Sri Aurobindo was hanging his leg while sitting in a chair. SRI AUROBINDO (To Dr. Manilal): You see, I have kept my promise. I said that as soon as The Life Divine was finished I would hang my leg. DR. MANILAL: I am grateful for it, Sir. But it has taken a long time to finish. SRI AUROBINDO: I didn't know myself that it would take so long. DR. MANILAL: Can't a Yogi know whether a medicine proposed is right or not? SRI AUROBINDO: He can, but will he try to do so? DR. MANILAL: I already see more bending in the knee, Sir, by the very talk of the application. SRI AUROBINDO: Not by the talk, but by your very contact with the lady, which I yogically came to know of. (Laughter)
SATYENDRA: Today is another great day according to astrology. Nothing happened on the 13th. DR. MANILAL: Why is today a great day? PURANI: You don't know? Jupiter and Venus have come very close together and that portends great events. Page-459 |