1 APRIL 1940PURANI: A poet friend of mine has written that he met X and was impressed by him. He found X to have illimitable Bhakti for the Mother and you. SRI AUROBINDO: Illimitable? Well, X had a strange way of showing it. PURANI: Then my friend writes that X has gone very deep down in his consciousness. SRI AUROBINDO: It is always possible to go down. (Laughter) PURANI: Here is a letter from Indumati. She asks whether or not her Bhakti for Krishna is genuine and how she can dedicate herself to Krishna and pray to him to free her from all bonds. SRI AUROBINDO: It is a little dangerous to pray for that. PURANI: Then she says that sometimes she sees Krishna's picture moving. Once she saw that he was very far away. SRI AUROBINDO: You may say to her that Bhakti is all right but it has to be complete and when it is complete she won't suffer from any troubles. The picture seen as moving means the Presence is there. NIRODBARAN: Why do you say it is dangerous for her to pray to be freed from bonds? SRI AUROBINDO: Because Krishna has extraordinary ways of freeing one, and she may not like them. You know the story of Nolineshwar and his father. Because his father used to persecute him, he prayed for his father's death. But when his father was on the point of dying, Nolineshwar prayed again to Krishna to spare him. The father recovered and then he started his old persecution again! (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: Dilip has made two more objections to Nishikanto's expression: first he says that "own" is a pronoun and , Page-582 here it has been used as an adjective, which is not permissible with "dream". Nishikanto's objection seems to have gone. He has agreed that by implication it can be taken in the sense of "self-dream". PURANI; Yes, he says that if a hyphen is put, then it will be clear. SRI AUROBINDO: If a hyphen solves the problem, then put it. NIRODBARAN: The other objection of Dilip is that the dream is called "disagreeable". How could a disagreeable dream be asked to fulfil itself? Why should a dream of which one is afraid be fulfilled? SRI AUROBINDO: The poet is not afraid. He thinks he is afraid. That is not an objection at all. The whole argument of our philosophy is that what seems disagreeable is really not disagreeable. It is an emanation of the Self and it can't be an illusion. One has to find one's fulfilment in it or through it. PURANI: After all, a poet has the right to take some liberty. NIRODBARAN: Dilip says that this kind of liberty is not permitted. PURANI: Why not? He himself has taken liberties with the language in his Anami, that are grammatically impossible. About one expression, I had to explain to him with all the force possible that it couldn't be allowed and he dropped it. SRI AUROBINDO: I see. In a novel of Stevenson's a character says, "Opulent orotunda Dublin," and argues: "Why should I say 'Rotunda Dublin' like the others and not as I please?" Now modern writers invent new words: for "beautiful and lucid" they say "blucid". (Laughter) PURANI: That is fine. It can also mean "blue acid". SRI AUROBINDO: And I have seen "hithery-thithery movement", which, of course, is expressive.
EVENING
DR. BECHARLAL: How to distinguish between self-respect and egoism? SRI AUROBINDO: There is no general rule. You have to become conscious. If you get angry or hurt, it means that it is your Page-583 egoism and not self-respect. Otherwise there is no rule by which it can be distinguished. PURANI: Krishnalal has painted a dog, a Kabuli dog belonging to Jwalanti's son. The colour has not come out properly because the model is velvety black. SRI AUROBINDO: It is not necessary to make an exact copy of the model. Talking of Kabuli animals, I remember my mother had a Kabulii cat. She had asked a Kabuliwalla. to bring her a cat; he brought one, the size of a small tiger. The first thing it did was to kill all the chickens in the neighbourhood. (Laughter) I don't know what happened to it afterwards. PURANI: The second volume of your Life Divine is likely to come out in August. Many chapters have already been sent to the Press. SRI AUROBINDO: Who puts all the interrogation marks on the proofs? PURANI: If it is the first proof, then somebody from Calcutta may be putting them. Otherwise people who see the proofs here may be doing it. SRI AUROBINDO: Sometimes the marks are very puzzling. Once I saw a vertical line against four or five lines and one interrogation mark beside it. That's all. No questions are asked. Just a mark is put. I don't know what it means whether the English is considered incorrect or some omission is felt or there is an objection to the whole statement. (Laughter) SATYENDRA: Perhaps they object to the whole philosophy? PURANI: Amal was asking if you would be publishing any poetry. SRI AUROBINDO: Poetry? Perhaps after thirty years. Considering the criticism of Nishikanto's poetry it seems better to write for private reading than for publication. Besides, English publishers say that nobody reads poetry now.
2 APRIL 1940
A critic named Nagaraj wrote an unfavourable review of The Life Divine in The Aryan Path. We were wondering how he came to do so —whether The Aryan Path had asked him to review it or he himself had sent it to the journal. Page-584 SRI AUROBINDO: Usually The Aryan Path sends my books to Krishnaprem for review. NIRODBARAN: As the article has appeared in the review columns the journal must have sent the book to Nagaraj. We know what kind of thing to expect because his ideas are well known to us. Our attitude is, "Oh, Nagaraj!" SATYENDRA: From the very beginning of the review it seems the writer has not understood Sri Aurobindo at all. PURANI: Possibly he had not even read the book. SATYENDRA: Even if he has read it, he doesn't appear to have understood it. Who is this Nagaraj? PURANI: Don't you know him? He is the critic of The Hindu. He is a Madhwaite. SRI AUROBINDO: He can't understand any new ideas or any new interpretation of the old. He considers it a violation of the truth. The Hindu has given him prominence. SATYENDRA: If one understands and then disagrees, the disagreement may be worth considering. But without understanding, disagreement is foolish. PURANI: May I read out Jayprakash Narayan's statement in court from The Harijan? No other paper has published it for fear of the Indian Defence Act. He says that both Germany and the Allies are fighting for new colonies. SRI AUROBINDO: That is not true for the Allies because they have more at present than they can chew and they are content with what they have. PURANI: He says that England is fighting to preserve her empire. SRI AUROBINDO: That is true. PURANI: "To us Indians," he continues, "both Nazism and British Imperialism are the same. There is no difference between the two." SRI AUROBINDO: That is humbug. PURANI: "So why should we fight for an Imperialism -which denies our freedom, -which holds the same domination over us? It is good that I have been arrested for my speech at Jamshedpur, for it is an important industrial centre. And if by my arrest the workers get more war bonus, I will be satisfied." SRI AUROBINDO: After getting the war bonus, can they fight for the Allies? If they can't, it seems inconsistent. Page-585 NIRODBARAN: Dilip is seeing the proofs of The Life Divine and he gets great joy out of it. SRI AUROBINDO: I see. SATYENDRA: Obviously — but ask him to see the account sheets and let us know? if he gets any joy. SRI AUROBINDO: They will kill him. (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: Usually he finds proof-reading a dull business. PURANI: But if one is an author, one has to do it -at least the first proofs. NIRODBARAN: He has done it and he does it, but he finds it dull. SRI AUROBINDO: Of course writing is more pleasant than proof-reading. Even in my second reading I missed an obvious mistake like "cact" for "act". (Laughter) EVENING
SRI AUROBINDO (looking at Purani with great amusement as he came in): Have you seen the report of the All India Sweepers' Conference at Lahore under Sardul Singh's presidentship? PURANI: No. SRI AUROBINDO: They have protested against Jinnah's Moslem India scheme and said that if India was going to be divided they must also have a separate India. I was not quite wrong when I said that barbers also would now start an agitation for an India of their own. (Laughter) (Still greatly amused) Chhotu Ram has said that the Sikhs will resist partition at any cost. They will not live under Muslem domination, be it under a Khoja Baniya (Jinnah) or a Hindu Baniya (Gandhi). (Laughter) Jinnah is now piping down and saying; "Ah, I didn't mean this or that. They have misunderstood me. I didn't want the transference of Muslem minorities," etc., and he is all praise for the Sikhs. PURANI: He knows he will get it hot from the Sikhs. If Jinnah maintains his theories he will create difficulty in the Punjab. Sikander Hyat Khan will lose all his support. SRI AUROBINDO: The Sikhs have very strange names: "Tiger Lion", "Water Lion", "Fire Lion". Page-586 3 APRIL 1940EVENINGNIRODBARAN: B. C. Chatterjee seems to have been defeated by the Bose group. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. The Hindu Sabha has got about fifteen seats. Considering that it is their first attempt, it is not bad. PURANI: The corporation election seems to me more a personal issue. SRI AUROBINDO: How personal? When the Congress fought the election it was on a political issue, to capture the corporation for the Congress. There was no personal question involved. PURANI: Bhai Paramanand has protested against a joint electorate in Sind at present. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he has said that a joint electorate, unless established all over India, won't turn out to be good for a single place like Sind where the Muslims are in a majority, because the Muslims being in a majority will get all the seats. Of course there is a provision that ten percent of the votes must be secured from the opposite community but ten percent is not enough. When a joint electorate is established all over India, a minority in one province will be counterbalanced by the majority in another province; so it will serve as a check against majority rule in a province. At present the Hindus may be at a disadvantage there. Of course they depend on their majority districts where they hope to turn the scale. Otherwise unless some provisions are made for minorities, difficulties may arise. 4 APRIL 1940In the morning, the radio gave the news that Lord Zetland had declared that no reforms could be given to India unless Congress and Muslims came to a compromise. SRI AUROBINDO (looking at Purani): So there won't be anymore reforms? PURANI: No. Page-587 SRI AUROBINDO: But why does Zetland stop where he does? He can say that even after an agreement between Congress and Muslims there will be no reforms. For there is the Hindu Mahasabha, the Khaksars have to be considered, C. R. and Nyekar, Nehru and the Socialists have to be dealt with, and then the Harijans! NIRODBARAN: There doesn't seem to be any way for Gandhi but to fight. PURANI: Already the Government has started arrests. Rangalyer is arrested, NIRODBARAN: That is the Defence Act. PURANI: Others will follow now. NIRODBARAN: Yesterday Nishikanto gave a triplet banana to show to the Mother and asked if he could take it. The Mother laughed and inquired, "Is he starving? He can take it with milk after mashing it sufficiently." This morning he said he couldn't take the whole. Even then there was some heaviness. I said I would report it to you. SATYENDRA: But why does he want to attract Sri Aurobindo's notice? To have pity on him because he can't take even a banana? (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: He seems to be forced into yogic austerity! (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: The vision he had some time back seems to have come true. Once during his sleep he saw a vital being pointing to his abdomen and saying, "That is the source of your strength. I am going to finish it." Then the being struck at the pit of his stomach like a bull with his head down. Nishikanto groaned and retaliated by suddenly giving a sharp squeeze to the being's scrotum. At this the being fled. (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: The being appears to have been right about Nishikanto. The pit of the stomach is the vital-emotional centre, which is the source of his strength. But it would be interesting to know what happened to the scrotum of the vital being. (Laughter) After this, Satyendra gave Sri Aurobindo a Bengali poem to see, as requested by Mridu. The poem was written by Jyoti on the presentation copy of her book Red Rose to Mridu. Page-588 SRI AUROBINDO: She says that Mridu's business is cooking and hers is writing. The "friend" finds the cooking sweeter than poetry. NIRODBARAN: An old correspondent, a victim of asthma, writes that he is the worst sufferer: he hasn't seen a single asthmatic patient suffering like him, day and night without any respite. SRI AUROBINDO: Every sick person says that of his own disease. He should be made to live with Suren. (Laughter) SATYENDRA: And then it will be seen whose suffering is worse! NIRODBARAN: The correspondent has asked X to write an article on the 'results of Karma' based on the points which he himself has asked him. The questionnaire has many points. The first is: By whom is Karma recorded? SRI AUROBINDO: By whom? There is our office upstairs. PURANI: Chitragupta does that. NIRODBARAN: Point 2: Many people die in an earthquake or a train disaster. Is it to be inferred that all had acted in the same way in their previous births? SRI AUROBINDO: He means the same way in the past because they all had the same experience now — quaked together? (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: Point 3: Sri Aurobindo has said that physical death is followed by vital and mental deaths hereafter. SRI AUROBINDO: I have never said that. I have spoken of the dissolution of the several sheaths. I have already answered such things in The Life Divine. Let the correspondent have a copy of it for ten rupees. 5 APRIL 1940In the morning news came of C. F. Andrews' death. SRI AUROBINDO (looking at Purani after his sponging was over): These doctors are wonderful. They had given out the news that the operation was successful. Now Andrews is dead. PURANI: There is the famous joke that the operation was successful but the patient died. SRI AUROBINDO: This is not a joke but a reality. This is the second case of late. The other was Braboume. NIRODBARAN: I don't know why Andrews went to Presidency Hospital. Major Drummonds who seems to have operated on him Page-589 doesn't have a very high reputation. There were other leading surgeons —even among the Indians. SRI AUROBINDO: Europeans have a prejudice against Indians but Andrews should have known better. Arjava had a very poor opinion of the Indian Medical Service. He said only third rate people come here as I.M.S.'s. NIRODBARAN: Why should first-rate people come here when they are well provided for at home? SATYENDRA: Surgeons sometimes diagnose wrongly and remove an organ only to find that there was nothing wrong with it. SRI AUROBINDO: And they can't put it back! (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: There are also differences among doctors. Venkataraman was told by one oculist that needling was not safe for a second cataract. Another said there was nothing wrong with needling. One said saline injections might be tried, another that they should have been tried at the outset only. One oculist said, "A very broad iridectomy has been done; the old-fashioned method was a bad one." SRI AUROBINDO: And the old-fashioned will say that the modern people are faddists. Who did the operation? NIRODBARAN: A relative. SRI AUROBINDO: Relatives will do like that. (Laughter) PURANI: The Secretary of the Muslim League states that the Muslims were originally Hindus. Sikander Hyat Khan comes from Rajput stock and the Secretary himself had Brahmin ancestors, and so they can all claim a separate Muslim India. SRI AUROBINDO: If they were Hindus, why do they claim anything separate? PURANI: He also says that the British took India from Muslim hands. So they were the more recent rulers. Somebody from Madras has replied that India was taken from the Sikhs, Rajputs and Mahrattas. The Muslims were already decadent at that period. SRI AUROBINDO: That is true, though there was still some Muslim rule. PURANI: The Madras man also says that the argument about being rulers is funny. The Harijans, who are converts to Christianity, may after fifty years claim that because they have the same religion as the British, they were the rulers. (Laughter) Somebody else said that if only one district from U.P. was included in Punjab and one from Bihar in Bengal, then the Hindus would Page-590 become a majority. This present division is fictitious and not natural. SRI AUROBINDO: In Assam it is like that. Sylhet has been included in Assam only for the Muslim majority there. Some parts of Bengal are included in Orissa deliberately and so also are Birbhum and Manbhum. EVENINGPURANI (showing some paintings): Here is the work of a Chinese painter who has come to India. SRI AUROBINDO (looking at them): They are very powerful and very Chinese. PURANI: A picture of Chinese generals by this painter has been done in European style. It appeared in the Visvabharati. SRI AUROBINDO: Poor imitation of Europe. When Chinese painters imitate, they produce a very weak result. PURANI: It is said that the Chinese are the world's greatest artists. Their handwriting is such as to make an artist. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, their calligraphy is a good training for the mind and for art. Arabic calligraphy also is very delicate and thorough in detail. The letters and the writings of other nations are too utilitarian. 6 APRIL 1940PURANI: Nirod didn't quite understand how calligraphy - NIRODBARAN: First of all, what is calligraphy? Good hand-writing? SRI AUROBINDO: All good handwriting is not calligraphy. Calligraphy is artistic handwriting. Haven't you heard of illuminated manuscripts? PURANI : Chinese and Arabic books are very artistic, with beautiful borders. It seems William Morris tried to produce Homer's epics like that. SRI AUROBINDO: The Roman script is too utilitarian to produce a good effect. In England they are trying oriental calligraphy now. Page-591 EVENINGAs often happened, Champaklal suddenly burst into laughter, looking at Nirodbaran. SRI AUROBINDO (turning in Nirodbaran's direction): Laughter of yogic communion? PURANI: There is an idea that D. M. Sen of Shantiniketan will be reviewing The Life Divine in the Hibbert Joumal. But Jayantilal tells me that he is a scholar of Western psychology. He hasn't read much of Eastern philosophy. It will be difficult for him to speak on yogic psychology and philosophy. SRI AUROBINDO: Then how can he do the reviewing? Of course there is plenty of mental psychology in The Life Divine, as well as yogic. PURANI: It is very difficult for these people to grasp yogic psychology. I once wrote that the seat of the emotions is the heart, and a critic sarcastically said, "Now we are to believe that the heart is the seat of the emotions!" SRI AUROBINDO: Well, where then is the seat? Outside the body? Or in some gland? NIRODBARAN: In the mind. SRI AUROBINDO: Mind is an abstract term. PURANI: They will say, "In the subconscient". SRI AUROBINDO: That is psychoanalysis. There is also a gland psychology and another that runs everything together. PURANI: Jayantilal met Jung in Ceylon. He gave him your books to read, but he couldn't find much in them. Maybe because he considers himself too great. SRI AUROBINDO: Jung has said that India has plenty of psychology. NIRODBARAN: Amal intends to bring out a book of his poems. SRI AUROBINDO: But he must not expect to be hailed as a great poet or even to have a good sale. NIRODBARAN: No, he expects to sell about one hundred copies among friends and realise the cost. He asks if you could write a foreword. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, no. NIRODBARAN: "Foreword" is a misnomer, he says; it is a sort of blessing he wants. Page-592 SRI AUROBINDO: A puff of blessing? PURANI: In order to sell well he must be modern. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, and publish in England, and moderns like Spender must recommend him. PURANI: Amal said he listened to H's radio talk on the Ashram. If one good statement was made, it was immediately counteracted by something quite opposite. For example, he said, "I hear Sri Aurobindo is busy writing an epic —a very good thing, but what shall we do with an epic "when people are starving?" SRI AUROBINDO: When epics were being written in the past, were there no people starving? And surely poetry was not written only for the proletariat? It is the same type of argument as, "Don't get rich when people are poor; don't be happy when people are miserable." PURANI: Gandhi uses the same argument. He writes against machines, art, etc. Once he wrote from a train to somebody decrying machines and the addressee replied, "I see that you wrote the letter from the train and yet you decry machines." Mahadev Desai, of course, defended Gandhi. SRI AUROBINDO: He is as inconsistent. 7 APRIL 1940NIRODBARAN: X wants to bring out a selection from your books and he corresponded with his English publishers, asking if they would publish it. They have said that such a book would have a very small sale in England but they wanted to know whether it would sell in India. SRI AUROBINDO: A selection is not much use at present. It may have some sale in India but not as much as a whole book on one theme. Selections are all right if one's books are widely read and appreciated. Selections from either a popular book or a popular writer would have a good sale. 8 APRIL 1940NIRODBARAN: X is asking if The Psychology of Social Development and The Ideal of Human Unity couldn't be published in England-at least one of them-by his publishers there. Page-593 SRI AUROBINDO: Will they take them? NIRODBARAN: He can write and find out. Alien and Unwin have already included one chapter from The Ideal of Human Unity in one of their books. SRI AUROBINDO: It doesn't follow that they will publish whole books. SATYENDRA : The Psychology of Social Development is being translated into French. If it sells well in France, then in England also there may be a demand, SRI AUROBINDO: Again it doesn't follow. The French are more plastic and they are interested in these things. Besides, I have already promised these books to the Arya Publishing House. Let them be on their way first. NIRODBARAN: It seems Dilip also is coming out to fight against Meghnad Saha. He has written a thesis of fifty-four pages! SRI AUROBINDO: Good Lord! I don't see the use of arguing with a man who is shut up in his science. He is at the same stage where Europe was fifty years ago. Except for Russia and perhaps some Socialists, Europe gave up the old scientific standpoint long ago. We are fifty years behind. NIRODBARAN: We are always taking up what they give up. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, we may turn Fascist when they have done with it. The Khaksars are trying to do that. PURANI: Yes. And J seems to be financing their movement. SRI AUROBINDO: Now he has asked them to suspend it and is communicating with the Government to remove the ban. PURANI: Yes, it is he who was behind the trouble in Hyderabad. He stood against Sir Akbar Hydari. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. PURANI : Sir Akbar says that Hyderabad had no Hindu-Muslim trouble before. It has been brought in from outside. SRI AUROBINDO: That is true. Muslims from the North and the Arya Samaj brought it there. The British Government can't allow the Khaksars to become powerful, for they want to drive out the British. SATYENDRA : It is said that the Government is behind the present Hindu-Muslim disunity. Somebody said that this Muslim India scheme won't survive Jinnah. NIRODBARAN: A hint to do away with him? (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO : By sending him to the war? How old is he? Page-594 PURANI: About sixty. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, then no chance. (Laughter) PURANI: But his health is rather weak and poor. SRI AUROBINDO: Diseased people often live long. NIRODBARAN: There's a letter from Y to Nishikanto. Y objects to Nishikanto's use of words like womb, prostitute, etc. and says they are unrefined, though he adds that they are found in plenty in Sanskrit. And his own family has Sanskrit culture. SRI AUROBINDO: Then why does he object? NIRODBARAN: Can't say. He continues that such sensibility about poetry may be due to European influence from which Tagore also is not free. "Why should Ishwar Gupta be our ideal when he is not even a greater poet than Tagore?" he asks. SRI AUROBINDO: What about Bengali prose? Are there no such expressions there? NIRODBARAN: I think there are, especially in modern books. At least in one book which was proscribed for obscenity. SRI AUROBINDO: Then if they can copy Europe in prose, why not in poetry? European prose contains any number of such things. What Y says smacks of the Victorian period. Europe has moved faraway from it. In fact, it has gone to the other extreme. Now they use these expressions for the sake of using them. I don't see why we should be confined to the Victorian period. The point is: if such words are necessary for one's expression, then they have to be used. NIRODBARAN: Even Z objected to the word "prostitute" and asked Nishikanto to change it. SRI AUROBINDO: Change it and put "a woman of bad character"? It is not the words so much as the way of expression that should matter. NIRODBARAN: Nishikanto was asked by his friends not to send any more poems to Z after such criticism. SRI AUROBINDO: If criticisms are resented like that - NIRODBARAN: No, not because of the criticism; they say that he has attacked you and the Mother and spoken against the Ashram. SRI AUROBINDO: He has not spoken against us. Speaking against the Ashram. is not an attack on us. NIRODBARAN: But he has said that by being confined to the limited Ashram atmosphere, the germ of Nishikanto's greatness will be killed and he has also referred to "religious propaganda", the Ashram philosophy, etc. Page-595 PURANI: That can't be called "abuse"; it is a criticism of our philosophy, made just as by other people. SRI AUROBINDO: The book has been published from the Ashram and contains our philosophy. So he has every right to criticise that philosophy. Of course, if the criticisms are hostile and malignant, it is a different matter or, if one attacks us, the question of loyalty and of serving one's Guru comes in. It would be serious even in case of repeated attacks on spirituality. Otherwise, if there are simple criticisms, they are not enough to stop sending poetry to the critic. NIRODBARAN: Is there any such criticism in Gujarat against Pujalal? PURANI: No, not yet. SRI AUROBINDO: You mean Gujarat is not modern enough? PURANI : Perhaps not. Besides, two modern Gujarati poets have come here and they are impressed by what they have seen. Purani then gave a long description of the modern tendency of Gujarati poetry. EVENINGPURANI: Dara has a novel suggestion for solving the Hindu-Muslim problem. SRI AUROBINDO: What is it? PURANI: He says that in the South the Hindus are in the majority, so they can be given self-government. In the North-West Frontier the Muslims are in the majority, and they can be given self-government there. In the rest of the places where they are almost equal, let them fight it out among themselves. SRI AUROBINDO: Fight till they come to a solution? Not quite without sense. For short of the threat of a decisive fight, people will go on talking and talking. If there was the possibility of such a fight, then they would come round. 9 APRIL 1940SATYENDRA: Senapati Bapat has been arrested. He was asked not to enter Bombay. Page-596 SRI AUROBINDO: No, he was asked to "remove himself". SATYENDRA: Not only did he not do so but he addressed a meeting. SRI AUROBINDO: That's all very well, but why on earth is he called Senapati? PURANI: Because he led a Satyagraha movement against the Tatas' extension of their dam. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, commander-in-chief of passive resistance? PURANI: Yes, but not quite, because they had swords with them. SATYENDRA: He seems to try being spectacular. SRI AUROBINDO: But the spectacle doesn't always come off. SATYENDRA: That is not his fault. SRI AUROBINDO: How? Is it because once, when he would have died by drowning, it was his friends who saved him and thus prevented him from being spectacular? SATYENDRA: Probably. That reminds me of a friend of mine who took more than a lethal dose of opium to commit suicide. But he didn't die; he was quite conscious though he couldn't move his limbs. He was an intellectual and a rationalist and was fed up with the world. SRI AUROBINDO: It was an intellectual attempt at suicide then, but some part in him that was not rationalist saved him. (Laughter) EVENINGNIRODBARAN: Germany has entered Denmark. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh! The war has begun then. Was this the measure they were considering? It is the direct result of British mine-laying. SATYENDRA: Germany will now have two fronts. NIRODBARAN: But why did they choose Denmark? SRI AUROBINDO: Because then they can control the Baltic and the North Sea and from there they can enter any time into Norway and Sweden. NIRODBARAN: So that was the reason for their troop-concentration there? Page-597 SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. The Germans have the power to fore-see and act accordingly, while the British act from hour to hour: "If this happens, we will do that—if that, then this." NIRODBARAN: Rumania has been saved. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, she is lucky. The attack on Finland saved her the first time and now the entry into Denmark has done it the second time. NIRODBARAN: Unless Russia takes this opportunity and spreads her net. SRI AUROBINDO: Now Finland will look on at them sharing the same fate. NIRODBARAN: Poor countries! They wanted to preserve strict neutrality. SRI AUROBINDO: Even now perhaps Norway and Sweden will say, "We must safeguard our neutrality at any cost." (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: The Allies have pledged their support in case they are attacked. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but they must invite the Allies. PURANI: Well, the Allies will first send 500 men, then 1000, then 2000 - like that. SRI AUROBINDO: Step by step. (Laughter) PURANI : The eleventh of this month seems to be an auspicious day. Something is going to happen. SRI AUROBINDO (Laughing): Something is happening all right. PURANI: There is the combination of Sun and Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Sun and Jupiter being more powerful will counteract the evil influence of the others. There will be a dash for peace. SRI AUROBINDO: Peace? Peace has been dashed all right, in Norwegian waters by the Allies and in the Baltic by Germany. Saturn and Mars are said to have dashed, aren't they? They seem to be more powerful than Sun and Jupiter. PURANI: They may have the start. SRI AUROBINDO: I see. The other two will come at the end or are working together now to run them out at the end? (Laughter) It was afterwards learnt that the Germans had captured some ports in Norway. SRI AUROBINDO : The British also should occupy other ports. Page-598 |