26 MAY 1940SRI AUROBINDO: The British have made another strategic retreat. (Laughter) PURANI: Yes, they got safely away without losing a single man. SRI AUROBINDO: The Germans allowed them to run away, perhaps. PURANI: Fifteen generals have been relieved of their command in France. SRI AUROBINDO: That is quite a big number. PURANI: They were said to be indifferent and negligent. SRI AUROBINDO: That is why Reynaud said that if the French could stand for a month, there would be a better chance. They will have to look for new men to take the place of the old generals. NIRODBARAN: Was there sabotage in the army? PURANI: The generals were just indifferent. SRI AUROBINDO: Not sabotage exactly. Some officer here said that along with the first French refugees some two thousand Germans came in and produced a demoralising effect. And yet the authorities took no action against them. Daladier exhibits himself as a strong man but he is really very weak. PURANI: A French counterpart of Chamberlain? SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so. PURANI: The Germans praise Lord Gort and General Ironside, saying they are quiet and don't show what they are going to do. SRI AUROBINDO: But they haven't done anything so far, except make strategic retreats. They do what the Germans want them to and hence the praise. They haven't shown any very brilliant capacity till now. NIRODBARAN: The British rely much on Weygand. SRI AUROBINDO: They know that they themselves have no capable persons. Page - 666 NIRODBARAN: I wonder if there is any sabotage in the British Army. Or is it the inherent weakness of the army itself? But the situation seems to have improved a little. SRI AUROBINDO: On the French side. The British are always retreating. If they go on in that way, the Germans will reach the ports and the British will have to retreat into their ships. That will be good in one way. The French will have a more easily defensible line —not too long. At present they have four lines along four rivers —the Somme, the Oise, the Meuse and the Scheldt. They can defend themselves without difficulty against mechanised units, but they haven't yet found anything against dive-bombers. NIRODBARAN: Dilip had a letter from Niren R. Chowdhury. It seems Dilip sent Huxley's book to Charu Dutt and asked him to forward it to Niren. Niren, after reading it, says, "It is all right, but Marx's Dialectical Materialism is the last word." PURANI: Marx's own followers are now differing among themselves about his Dialectical Materialism. What exactly is it? SATYENDRA: Huxley hasn't developed any philosophy in his book. He has only described his experience. It is neti, neti ("Not this, not that"). SRI AUROBINDO: No, it is not all neti, neti. So far as I have gathered from the extracts I have read, it is not that alone. SATYENDRA: But he has not given any philosophy. PURANI: He is a moralist. SRI AUROBINDO: He has said, as I have done, that there is no solution to the problem of the world except by spirituality and the spiritual way. SATYENDRA: Can spiritual experience solve the problem? SRI AUROBINDO: It is the basis. What people try to make out of Huxley and Gerald Heard is that theirs is a confession of defeat and that they on their part want to escape from the world. It is not really this, as Isherwood has pointed out in the New Statesman. He says that what he understands from Huxley and Heard is that they want to discover a way to change the present human consciousness by which alone the social and political problems will be solved. Somebody also said that Heard advocates Buddhist fatalism. To which Heard replied that he didn't advocate fatalism at all. Nor is there any fatalism in Buddhism. All human history has been a question of change of consciousness, and Huxley says that the change can come only by spirituality. Hitherto people have worked Page - 667 on the principle of opposition and indifference. That can only make a patchwork solution. Behind the multiplicity and division one has to see the identity and oneness. Of course, if you say spirituality is not a solution, then you have to fall into Mayavada (World-Illusionism). SATYENDRA (after some time): Do you envisage the gnostic being as living and acting in the world in a group formation? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, If the individual has to remain in society, the gnostic being has to do this too and the individual must merge in the group. SATYENDRA: In place of individual isolation, it will then be group isolation? SRI AUROBINDO: From the group the gnostic being will act on the world. Since the Supermind wants to change the world, the group will have to take up the outer life of the society and the individual has to throw himself into the outer life. I am not speaking of the inner life. Either the individual has to live secluded and isolated from the life of the society or take up its own outer life in order to change it. Without group action the individual will have to give way to the life of the society and be like one of the group. SATYENDRA: There has been plenty of spiritual life lived in world. SRI AUROBINDO: Is that why it had no effect on the world? PURANI (after Satyendra's exit): What I understand Satyendra to, say is: Why should one be compelled to lead a group life? NIRODBARAN: There is no compulsion and, if at all, it is an inner one. SRI AUROBINDO: Why should there be any compulsion? One can go, if he likes, to the mountains and live there, but if one is impelled from within to lead a group life he can follow the impulsion. If the Supramental Truth commends itself to one, one can live according to it. PURANI: I told Satyendra that the very fact that he talks of compulsion and of keeping one's individuality, shows that he is, talking from his mental imagination. For, if one attains to the Sachchidananda consciousness, one is no longer bound by such ideas, one is led to accord oneself to that higher consciousness. SRI AUROBINDO: And if he wants to keep his individuality, for that he has to accept the Supramental Truth; for in the Supermind Page - 668 alone there is diversity and difference but without division—diversity there is based on unity and difference is a play of the One.
EVENINGPURANI : That book of astrology is hard on Sir Oswald Mosley, and what the writer has said has come true. Mosley has been imprisoned. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but Mosley may comfort himself by thinking that Hitler too was once imprisoned. PURANI: As regards particulars, the book is not correct at all. SRI AUROBINDO: Only about general influences does he make some right guesses. 27 MAY 1940NIRODBARAN: Nolini Sen writes that Meghnad Saha wants to come here. SRI AUROBINDO: To embrace X? (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: Sen has a deep respect for Saha. He says he is very sincere, honest, open-minded, generous. SRI AUROBINDO: Perhaps not open-minded. PURANI (giving a letter to Sri Aurobindo): Sundaram has written to you, asking what his duty is in connection with the war. He is much puzzled. SRI AUROBINDO: You may tell him that God's Front is the Spiritual Front, which is still lagging much behind. Hitler's Germany is not God's Front. It is the Asuric Front, through which the Asura aims at world-domination. It is the descent of the Asuric world upon the human to establish its own power on the earth. NIRODBARAN: It seems Hitler says that by the end of June he will proclaim a New Order from a city in France. SRI AUROBINDO: A New Order for what? And from which city? Vervains? NIRODBARAN: Or Amiens? SRI AUROBINDO: Amiens will be made unsuitable for him by the R.A.F., if they know he is there. NIRODBARAN: He will dictate the terms of peace also. SRI AUROBINDO: Dictate by the end of June? Page - 669 NIRODBARAN: Yes. PURANI: And everything will be over by August 15. SRI AUROBINDO: He expects everything to go according to schedule.
EVENINGPURANI: Ramakrishna's new temple at Belur is supposed to be the biggest on the eastern side. SRI AUROBINDO: What does the eastern side mean? PURANI: On this side of the temple of Jagannath. SRI AUROBINDO: Hindu temples are usually not big. Whom do they worship at Ramakrishna's temple? PURANI: I think there is a life-size photograph of Ramakrishna and the sign OM somewhere. SRI AUROBINDO: That is Vivekananda's creed. PURANI: Yes, but I am not sure of the details. SRI AUROBINDO: In Ramakrishna's temple there ought to be at least an image of Kali. Page - 670 28 MAY 1940
PURANI: The morning paper says that two German generals are advancing with their infantry. And French and British units are trying to join and make a line of defence before they arrive. SRI AUROBINDO : It doesn't look as if those units will be able to do it. (After a time) This extension of the Maginot Line seems to be a myth. There are no fortifications anywhere. PURANI: After the last war, if they had strengthened the fortifications, things would have been better. SRI AUROBINDO: But where are the fortifications? They do not exist. That is why the Germans have walked over easily to Amiens and other places. PURANI: The Allies seem to have stemmed the tide now. NIRODBARAN: In one sector they are badly placed, where the Germans are attacking from the rear. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know why they didn't provide for it. PURANI: The R.A.F. have done very good work. They are destroying all communications, tanks, depots, etc. SRI AUROBINDO: In the air and on the sea the British as well as the French are superior. NIRODBARAN: Daladier wanted to bluff the Germans. SRI AUROBINDO: Bluff? They have all the necessary information. A Deputy said to Daladier, "If France is destroyed, it will be your fault." Daladier said, "No, we have been good. But in infantry we have been outclassed." NIRODBARAN (after a while, giving Sri Aurobindo Udbodhan to read): Here is a review of Nishikanto's Alakananda, written by one Debabrata Roy Chowdhury, who says, "Nishikanto's poetic life grew up in the shadow of Tagore's poetry; so his poems of those days are colourless like a shadow-grown tree.... Today he has found the direction towards the Beyond in the shelter of Sri Aurobindo." SRI AUROBINDO: Tagore won't like that. NIRODBARAN: In this same issue has come the second instalment of your life by Girija S. R. Chowdhury. This man has brought out the whole history and origin of Brahmo Samaj to show its influence on your birth and your connection with it. SRI AUROBINDO: What have I got to do with that? My father was an atheist. Page -671 NIRODBARAN: Your grandfather, Rajnarayan, was a Brahmo. The writer links that up with your life. SRI AUROBINDO (addressing Nirodbaran after taking up the copy and reading): Look here! He says that the people of Khulna have designated the town of Khulna the playground of Aurobindo's adolescence — because my father was a civil surgeon in Khulna. It is not true. Up to the age of five I was in Rangpur, as my father was in Rangpur, not in Khulna. I went to Khulna long after returning from England. NIRODBARAN: From five to seven, you were in Darjeeling Loretto School, he says. SRI AUROBINDO: He may have got that right. He says, "The place where Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta has not been fix yet. Nobody has tried to fix it, and it should be done." I was born in the lawyer Manmohan Ghose's house on Theatre Road. (Then Sri Aurobindo began to read and put marks in various places. He stopped at a place.) Have I said anything against immolation of the Satis anywhere? PURANI: Not that I know of.
EVENINGNews came that Belgium had surrendered. It was a surprise to us all. PURANI: King Leopold has not consulted even his commander-in-chief Blanchard. The Belgian Government says that it won't accept the King's order and will raise another army in France. NIRODBARAN: Yes, but how will it reach Belgium? It is really very extraordinary. SRI AUROBINDO: The commander-in-chief is not bound to obey the king's order. The king is not the nation. The surrender means that Dunkirk — and also Calais — will fall to Germany. PURANI: I wonder if he has been bribed. SRI AUROBINDO: He has always been an unreliable person, used to taking many steps on his own account. The Mother said that he killed his own wife, and now he kills his country. His wife was better than he, and she would not have allowed this. NIRODBARAN: Did he kill his wife? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he was to blame for the accident. Page -672 The lieutenant here, who is the son of a French general, has said that Belgium's Albert Canal is almost as impregnable as the Maginot Line. There must have been some act of treason for Belgium to give way so spectacularly. PURANI: It didn't hold out even for two weeks. NIRODBARAN: It didn't hold out at all. We've heard so much about Holland's dams and the Albert Canal! SRI AUROBINDO: The great defect of advanced democracy is that it listens to anything — to slogans, as they say — without being able to think or judge for itself. In the French army also at the beginning there was disaffection: "What are we fighting for? These generals will kill us in the war." All the slogans were in the air owing to German propaganda. That is the result of mass education. All that such education gives is information, and people don't know what use to make of it, how to apply it in the right and not the wrong way. It is already a difficult problem for educated people; what then about the masses? Hitler has openly said in his book that to carry the public, one has only to lie, to give false promises, and they will be with you. It shows now that what he has said is quite true. PURANI (after some time): Jinnah seems to be seriously ill. SRI AUROBINDO: About two days ago he gave out a statement on the Pakistan scheme. PURANI: This Gujarati paper says he is ill. If he goes, then — SRI AUROBINDO (smiling): Have you read what Gandhi has said in answer to a correspondent? He says that if eight crores of Muslims demand a separate State, what else are the twenty-five crores of Hindus to do but surrender? Otherwise there will be civil war. NIRODBARAN: I hope that is not the type of conciliation he is thinking of. SRI AUROBINDO: Not thinking of it, you say? He has actually said that and almost yielded. If you yield to the opposite party beforehand, naturally they will stick strongly to their claims. It means that the minority will rule and the majority must submit. The minority is allowed its say: "We shall be the rulers and you our servants. Our harf (word) will be law; you will have to obey." This shows a peculiar mind. I think this kind of people are a little cracked, (Looking at Purani) Don't you agree? PURANI (after a pause): Rajkot seems to have some reforms now. Page -673 SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, what has happened there? This Thakur must have done something very wrong. PURANI: Probably. It may be he is in debt and spending State money. He is an idiot. Virawalla also is now dead. NIRODBARAN: After all, Gandhi's fast is bearing fruit. (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: You mean Virawalla died as a result of fast? NIRODBARAN: People will take it in that way. SRI AUROBINDO: That is what I have written in the Arya- that "soul-force" sometimes creates forces which are much more violent. Gandhi may agree to the change of constitution as a result of his fast but not Virawalla's death. (Laughter) PURANI: But the whole public feeling against him must have weighed on him. SRI AUROBINDO: Who is this new Dewan of Rajkot? I seem to have heard his name. Was he in any legislature? PURANI: He is a Parsi, one of the Anklesarias. He is a barrister from Bombay.
29 MAY 1940PURANI: It is said that there were 300,000 Belgian troops. Their surrender has made the position of the British Expeditionary Force extremely grave. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. There is no way out for them unless Dunkirk can hold on or they can rush through the gap from the French line. SATYENDRA: I don't understand why King Leopold has order the surrender. ; SRI AUROBINDO: He has always been unreliable and taken independent decisions. It was he who prevented alliance with France just before the war and he kept his wonderful neutrality. Now he has been given a castle and a pension for his service to Hitler. SATYENDBA: The surrender came as a surprise even to the German commander. NIRODBARAN: If the Army rises in revolt - SRI AUROBINDO: That would be something. Page -674 PURANI: The Belgian Cabinet is trying to raise a new Belgian army. NIRODBARAN: Yes, but it's not much use. They can't go to Belgium and fight there. SRI AUROBINDO: Still, it shows the rebellion of the people. PURANI: It will be like the Czech and Polish armies — with only small numbers of men. SRI AUROBINDO: With our Sammer we can start a Czech army (laughter), so that they may realise the situation and learn a lesson. NIRODBARAN: Dilip is passing through ups and downs. Now he is trying to take a philosophical view of the Allied reverses and set himself in the right position. SRI AUROBINDO: What is that? NIRODBARAN: He says that perhaps it is necessary that the Allies should go through hardships and sufferings at the beginning. He got strength from the Mother's message in which she has said that the Asuras can't be victorious eternally against the Divine. The hour of Hitler's downfall must come. SRI AUROBINDO : That doesn't mean it will come by the Allies. (Laughter) SATYENDRA: No, but don't tell him that or he will be depressed. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. SATYENDRA: It seems that everything touches him badly. SRI AUROBINDO: How do you mean? SATYENDRA: I mean that if anything goes wrong anywhere, it affects him. Perhaps he has become depressed about Subhas Bose too. NIRODBARAN: No, not now. He has seen through him. SRI AUROBINDO: Subhas Bose is starting another revolution. SATYENDRA: Yes, Narendra Deo calls his Forward Bloc "Backward Bloc". . SRI AUROBINDO: "Forward and Backward Bloc" would be better still. (Laughter) SATYENDRA : In the Chandi there are descriptions of these fights of the Asuras — I am telling Nirod as he may not have read it. So many times the Asuras attack the Mother. At the last moment, they are defeated. SRI AUROBINDO: That is the Indian tradition: up to the last moment the Asuras are victorious; and that is the general tradition as well. At the last moment, some miracle happens. Page -675 SATYENDRA: They also say that Shiva supports the Asuras, gives them boons. SRI AUROBINDO: He makes many blunders. SATYENDRA: And Vishnu comes to the rescue. NIRODBARAN: Sometimes it seems that Shiva favours one side and Parvati the opposite one. Madhusudan has depicted it in Meghnad, his epic poem. SRI AUROBINDO: Madhusudan had a sympathy for Ravana
Then Purani read out from a Hindi paper an article by some Arya Samajist attacking Ramana Maharshi, and also Agarwal — that is, one of our group — who had held a joint meditation in Gurukul. The Arya Samajist who went to Ramana Maharshi said that the Maharshi observes the caste system. When asked why this was so, the Maharshi replied, "Should all horses, donkeys and pigs eat from a common plate?" (Laughter)
SATYENDRARA: But he doesn't believe in caste — he eats with non-Brahmins. SRI AUROBINDO: He must have said that deliberately to Arya Samajist. PURANI: Yes, I know of an Arya Samajist who had an altercaation with Ramana Maharshi some time ago. This is probably the same man. It was said that Ramana Maharshi got excited and angry and began to shout. This man also says he became angry. SRI AUROBINDO: Angry? PURANI: Yes, Brunton too has said that he gets angry. SRI AUROBINDO: Ramakrishna also used to get angry, for that matter. PURANI: He says that in Gandhi's Ashram there is no caste. I SRI AUROBINDO: And why does he say that the Maharshi was jealous because he criticised him? Does one criticise out of jealousy? Gandhi doesn't believe in the caste system? PURANI: Oh yes, he does. SATYENDRA: Varnashram. The Maharshi has a very good relationship with Gandhi. He sent him blessings. SRI AUROBINDO: The Sannyasins don't observe caste? PURANI: Oh yes, they do. SRI AUROBINDO: Then what strikes him as so very strange? SATYENDRA: If the Maharshi observes the caste system, it is because he doesn't want to disturb the established order of society Page -676 SRI AUROBINDO: Why should he disturb it? It is not his business. PURANI: Besides, he himself takes his meals with non-Brahmins. What more can he do?
EVENING
The radio news said that King Leopold had surrendered because of a military stress.
SRI AUROBINDO: What is this military stress under which he had to surrender and had no time even to inform the Allies or consult the Cabinet? PURANI: Roger Keyes seems to have sent some confidential message to Churchill about it, which may have been that the army was refusing to fight. SRI AUROBINDO: Even so, did they have no time to inform the Allies? That is more than I can swallow. And if the army refuses to fight, it is a dishonour to the whole nation; in the other case, it is a dishonour only to the king. NIRODBARAN: They say the Germans launched a heavy attack against the Belgian army. SRI AUROBINDO: Just two or three days ago it was said that the Belgians were fighting gallantly. NIRODBARAN: The Hindu seems to support the king. SRI AUROBINDO: It shows sympathy for the Belgian king's army. SATYENDRA: It seems also to be generous. SRI AUROBINDO: Generous? When the whole army is going to be destroyed, it is difficult to be generous. No, Roger Keyes doesn't clear the mystery. It seems the whole world of humanity has lost all sense of honour and truth. For the sake of self-interest one is capable of doing anything. PURANI: Street fighting is going on in Dunkirk. SRI AUROBINDO: That means it will fall into the hands of the Germans. SATYENDRA: The Maharaja of Travancore has placed his whole army at the disposal of the British (laughter) — an army of a hundred or so. SRI AUROBINDO: A little more, perhaps. Page -677 SATYENDRA: Sometimes the Maharaja of Nepal also does the same — a few thousand people. NIRODBARAN: At any rate they wouldn't surrender. SATYENDRA: I don't know. Against mechanised warfare, what can they do? SRI AUROBINDO: They would do very well. They have initiative, dash and daring, and they can easily adapt themselves. They would start some sort of guerilla warfare in which they excel. SATYENDRA: Yes. PURANI: The R.A.F. are doing very good work. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't see how they can do much. The soldiers are pressed from east and west and if the supplies from Dunkirk are cut off, then without food and ammunition how are they to hold on? If the Belgian army has capitulated for lack of supplies, one can understand, but even then, they would have had time to inform. NIRODBARAN: Perhaps escape through the ports is the only way open to the British Expeditionary Force. SRI AUROBINDO: Which ports? Ostend was in the hands of the Belgian army. By their surrender Dunkirk will be vulnerable unless they have sufficient troops there to defend it. Now escape also is difficult. They may try to dash through the gap and line up with the French on the Somme. Otherwise I don't see any way. Where is the main body of the French army they speak of? Why don't they employ it now to disengage the trapped soldiers? I don't understand, this warfare. PURANI: Weygand is organising in other parts. He is hoping to dislodge the Germans and occupy the bridges. He will take a month to consolidate. Perhaps he thinks that if he brings in the main army at this weak moment, it may also lose. SRI AUROBINDO: Even then this will be a tremendous loss - 300,000 people! (After a pause) The whole thing is absurd. Why did England send this Expeditionary Force against an army highly mechanised? Perhaps we shouldn't criticise them. India would have made a bigger mess, "a Himalayan blunder" as Gandhi would call it. The whole history of India has been a running away of armies from battlefields as soon as their king or their leader was killed. For instance, in the battle of Calicut after the king had fallen, the soldiers — they were of the finest type — could not stand it for a moment; they simply ran away. In England I read a book by some Page -678 Englishman about the Battle of Assaye. He said that when the French king fell, the soldiers didn't know what to do. They simply stood at their posts and were mopped up by the British. PURANI: The Indian people also had no unity among themselves. They didn't think in terms of their country as a whole. Someone, in writing about the Mahrattas, said that they had tremendous national egoism but no unity, and that their system of Jagirdarsą was the cause of their ruin. Very often these Jagirs were given as hereditary posts without any consideration of the individual's fitness. Khare, ex-chief minister, also said to the Mahrattas, "You don't know what Swaraj is, you never had it." SRI AUROBINDO: They had it during Shivaji's time; at that time they were all united. Among the Sikhs too there was unity, though later on it broke down. The Rajputs, of course, didn't know what unity was. Europe is now inheriting. The ancient peoples also didn't know how to achieve the malady unity. Porus, after being defeated, allied himself with Alexander and fought against his own countrymen. In Europe also the same thing happened during the Middle Ages, and continued even up to the early part of the reign of Louis XIV. Some provinces of France were at one time fighting for France, and at another time against her. PURANI : Yes, a part of France was sometimes calling England to come and rule her. SRI AUROBINDO: Which part? PURANI: Normandy. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, Normandy. At that time there was a Norman king in England, so they thought themselves to be allies. Besides, it was the period following the feudal kings and lords, so the people thought it their duty to serve their feudal lords. They had no sense of country at that time. In spite of all that, it is remarkable that France became so united. PURANI: Some contemporary has written the whole of French history in two pages. He says the whole question amongst them is: Who is the best leader ? SRI AUROBINDO: That is at least something. In India, it was: Who is the most powerful?
ąThose holding land without paying tax on it. Page -679 30 MAY 1940SRI AUROBINDO (addressing Purani and smiling): Have you heard of the great and glorious British victory? PURANI: Conquest of Narvik? Yes. The Germans also admit it now. NIRODBARAN: We can say now that Hitler's decline has begun. (Laughter) PURANI: Dunkirk is still in the Allies' hands. There is a great concentration of navy. Perhaps the B.E.F. will be able to escape. SRI AUROBINDO: They seem to be very clever in retreat (laughter) - the French are not. SATYENDRA: It will be a great feat if they can escape. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, it can be called a great military feat. PURANI: The Germans are leaving a great number of dead in this campaign. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, they are always reckless. PURANI : Shaw says that what Russia has not been able to do twenty-three years England has done in two-and-a-half years. SRI AUROBINDO: What? NIRODBARAN: State Socialism. SRI AUROBINDO: Russia has not done it. PURANI: No — only according to Shaw. And then he says that when the British people are frightened they flare up. The Kaiser frightened them and he was defeated. Hitler also will have the same fate. SRI AUROBINDO: Is he defending the war now? PURANI: Yes. SRI AUROBINDO: He has been frightened himself then? (Laughter) PURANI: He asks Ireland to join with the Allies; otherwise they will have the same fate as Poland in German hands.
31 MAY 1940Sri Aurobindo opened the talk by referring to the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk.
SRI AUROBINDO : So they are getting away from Dunkirk! Page -680 PURANI: Yes. It seems the fog helped the evacuation. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. Fog is rather unusual at this time. (By saying this, it seemed that Sri Aurobindo wanted to hint that the Mother and he had made this fog to help the Allies.) Now they have let out King Leopold who has been in sympathy with Germany for a long time. The Belgian ambassador in Spain said that he has always had sympathy with totalitarianism. SATYENDRA: This fight has given some confidence to the British Expeditionary Force. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, the British were becoming used to quiet and comfort. Purani (after some time, when the others had gone): Adwaitanand (a visitor) says that wherever he has travelled in India he has found a living current of spirituality and he is very glad. Even people who have been atheists and materialists are now turning to spirituality or having a regard for it. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): Even Subhas Bose when depressed talks of spirituality. (Laughter) PURANI: He has met the Congress leaders and they are also changing, he says. Rajendra Prasad he found to be a very good man. About Nehru he is silent. SRI AUROBINDO: I thought he was against any spirituality. PURANI (after a while): This Muslim delegation to the All India Muslim Education Conference has arrived. SRI AUROBINDO: Delegation? It is not a delegation. PURANI: Hasn't it been sent by Calcutta University? The Vice-Chancellor of the University is the President. SRI AUROBINDO: Calcutta University? I thought he had done it in his own capacity. Does he want to Mahommedanise Calcutta University? NIRODBARAN: Dilip says he is not impressed by them. Almost all look "stolid", he says. PURANI: I don't see why they have come to Pondicherry. (After a while) Wells considers that the German threat to invade is a myth to keep British forces in England instead of letting them come to France. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't think an invasion is likely or possible. SATYENDRA: They can only make air raids. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. The British are preparing their defences Page -681 NIRODBARAN (addressing Purani): Jinnah has come out. So he is not ill. SRI AUROBINDO: He practically says to the Government, "You side with us and we will see." PURANI: What can the Congress do? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. NIRODBARAN: If the Government concedes to the Congress, can the Muslim League do anything effective against it? SATYENDRA: What can they do? NIRODBARAN: Non-violent non-cooperation? PURANI: Non-violent? By the Muslims? SRI AUROBINDO: They can start some Khaksar agitation.
EVENINGPURANI: The Germans claim to have sunk three warships and many troopships of the Allies. SRI AUROBINDO: Three warships? PURANI: Two battleships and one cruiser. SRI AUROBINDO: Two sloops probably. Difficult to believe German claims even when they say what is true. After some time Sri Aurobindo lay in bed. SRI AUROBINDO (to Purani): I was reading this book of Amiya Chakravarty, The Dynasts and Post-War Poetry. Most of the quotations he gives from Hardy, Auden, etc. are what I said of Ramesh Dutt's poetry: execrable. (Laughter) Give me the book, I shall read out some. (After reading out from the book here and there) Each one is worse than the other. Compared to the modern ones, Hardy's are better, though he does not hesitate to write flat prose. (Laughter) PURANI: The Dynasts is about Napoleonic times. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, it is a caricature of Napoleon. It makes him a tyrant — it is pacifist poetry. Page -682 |