1 AUGUST 1940

SRI AUROBINDO: Hitler wants peace not in Rumania only but all over the world.

PURANI (laughing): Yes, he has already said he does not understand why the war should go on.

SRI AUROBINDO: He would say, "Now that I have won, why should it?"

NIRODBARAN: The newspaper says there is a great concentration of troops along the French Channel coast to attack England.

SRI AUROBINDO: Troops? Not ships? A concentration of ships is required.

PURANI: Perhaps they will swim across with swimming belts and allow themselves to be arrested.

SRI AUROBINDO: Swimming parties can't be arrested.

This man Leavis is less partial to Ezra Pound than to Eliot. He says Pound's earlier poems are a preparation for later ones which have rhythm, form, etc., but have no substance. Have you found. wonderful rhythm?

PURANI: None. Isn't that poem "O Apollo.. .tinwreath" by him? Nolini said tin-wreath is wonderful! (Laughter)

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, it is in Greek tina; most idiotic it is. And he says it is a great pun; not a pun but most idiotic.

PURANI: I told you Amal's joke that Pound is not worth the penny! (Laughter)

SRI AUROBINDO: Among all these people only Eliot has done something.

PURANI: Yes, though he has no form, he has substance.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, and rhythm and energy. No wonder that old English people can't enjoy their poetry and they call it idiotic. It is a new kind of decadence. The old decadence was intellectual. The intellect was sterilised and petrified but this is dotty and crazy.

PURANI: Yes, if "You are thinking? What are you thinking?" can be called poetry!

SRI AUROBINDO: And striking rhythm! He admits people read poetry. That is good, he says, for then poetry becomes more precious. It is like Einstein's theory; only five or six people understand it.

PURANI: And they also differ among themselves.

Page -826

EVENING

PURANI: Westerners say that ancient Indian art is religious and spiritual.

SRI AUROBINDO: That is because only these types still exist. There was also secular art -which has been destroyed.

PURANI: And Indian art is not so much aesthetic as expressing some religious emotion — the artists wanted more to express these emotions and feelings than to make the work a piece of art or aesthetic. And if they became art, it was in spite of themselves.

SRI AUROBINDO: Nonsense. If art is not aesthetic, it is not art. Indians have no aesthetic sense, they mean to say? What about the Indian idea of rasa?

PURANI: Coomaraswamy says all art must pass through the intellect in order to be real art. The Modernist conception also is like that to a certain extent.

SRI AUROBINDO: What the Modernists aim at is to make their sensations pass through the intellect, sensations in place of emotions. Sensations not only of the vital but the physical too. As they say, Hopkins's poetry must be heard not only through the ear but through the body. And it is these sensations modern poets are labouring to express through their poems.

2 AUGUST 1940

PURANI: Have you read the review of a book on Russia in the last Manchester Guardian? It says that some Englishmen who worked in Russia think that an alliance between Russia and England is not possible; it is possible between Russia and Germany. Between themselves they have divided their spheres. Hitler is to take the West and Stalin the East.

SRI AUROBINDO:I suspected some such thing. So India is to fall under Stalin? Only, Indians don't yet realise it. But though Hitler may allow it for now, he may turn against Stalin afterwards.

NIRODBARAN: So India will be treated with another subjugation by Russia? Communists, of course, won't call it an aggression.

SRI AUROBINDO: No, they have no national sense.

PURANI; Besides, they will have favourable positions under Stalin.

Page -827

SRI AUROBINDO: Our condition will be worse, even worse than under Germany. But Russia will have to face Japan before Stalin comes to India. It is Japan's firm, agelong aim to drive out all Europeans from Asia. She considers herself as holding and guarding the destiny of Asia. This aim is stronger than her own imperialism.

NIRODBARAN: Japan has already given a hint of her aim - she wants to link China, Indo-China and the Dutch East Indies.

SRI AUROBINDO: Even before that, she had the same rooted aim. Mother's friends who were prominent people hold that idea and for that reason they have been protecting Indian refugees. The leader of the Black Dragon first developed the idea and Okakura too had it. China can't be expected to have that mission. She is more self-regarding and international.

PURANI: Yes, she won't mind taking European help for her purpose.

SRI AUROBINDO: Only the Japanese have lost their clear mind and high vision by Western contact, and their soldiers also are not what they were.

NIRODBARAN: The Western races know Japan's aim very well and they call it the yellow peril.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, and theirs is the white peril, which Japan knows.

NIRODBARAN: The Supermind ought to descend now; the conditions are getting very bad with Hitler and Stalin threatening everybody.

SRI AUROBINDO: The Supermind is not concerned with these things.

PURANI : Nirod is surprised to find that the Supermind goes by different values and he doesn't like it.

SATYENDRA: If it had not different values, it would not be worthwhile.

SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so.

NIRODBARAN: We are hoping the 15th will come soon so that the descent on that day will act as a check against Hitler.

SRI AUROBINDO (smiling): According to the rather discredited astrologers the 3rd, tomorrow, is the date of his death.

SATYENDRA: It has been estimated that about two and a half crores of rupees will be required to equip one division.

SRI AUROBINDO: Then forty such divisions will be necessary against Hitler or Stalin.

Page -828

PURANI: The Pétain Government has declared that French pilots fighting for England will be shot if they land in French territory while the English will be taken prisoners.

SRI AUROBINDO: So it means France is at war with England.

PURANI: Practically.

3 AUGUST 1940

To a letter of Dilip's regarding the present world condition, Krishnaprem wrote a reply which was read by Sri Aurobindo.

SATYENDRA: Krishnaprem quotes the Gita's, "By Me these have been slain" and says, "The war has already been fought and won," by which he means action in the subtle worlds.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, of course, it is there that things first happen. They are decided in the higher worlds before they are projected here.

NIRODBARAN: So what happens here will be the result of the decisions and actions above?

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but what happens here doesn't always take place exactly in the same way. There are variations, and the decisions also can be changed. When there is a struggle of forces it is always possible to change the balance of forces and thus alter the decision. But there can be variations only in what has been decided by the Supreme Vision.

For instance, there are forces which are trying to destroy the British and their Empire — forces above and here in this world — I mean the inner forces. I myself wished for the Empire's destruction but at that time I didn't know certain other forces would arise. These forces are working for the evolution of a New World Order which is bound to come. But for this new arrangement the British Empire need not be destroyed. It can be achieved in quite a different manner by a change in the balance of different forces, more quietly and without much destruction. Were it not for Hitler I wouldn't have cared -whether the British Empire remained or went down. Now the question is whether this New Order is to come after much suffering and destruction or with as little suffering as possible. The destruction of England would mean the victory of Hitler and in that case, perhaps after a great deal of suffering and through various

Page -829

difficult reactions on the part of men to Hitlerite oppression, the New Order will come or it may not come at all or come only after Pralaya! Of course the issue has been decided by the Divine Vision and there can be no change in that. But nobody knows what it is.

Krishnaprem puts it in a rather absolute way which I don't think is true. He doesn't give sufficient importance to the material world. If everything is fixed and whatever happens is, as he says, according to the decisions above, then this world would be only an illusion. He says that by a psychic change, the New World Order can be brought about. Psychic change is useful only for much higher spiritual purposes. Even so, it is possible only in a small number of people and how can that alter the world? Besides, for changing the World Order the psychic change is not necessary, it can be done by change in the balance of forces.

NIRODBARAN: That balance will follow by the psychic change?

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but is the psychic change possible for the whole world? By psychic I suppose he means the mental and vital changes. I don't know how even these are to come about if Hitler wins and if everybody is busy taking refuge in cowardice and trying to save their own skin.

NIRODBARAN: You said that what is decided above takes place here with a certain variation. Is that variation the process and method of working things out?

SRI AUROBINDO: No, even the whole decision may be changed, as I said.

NIRODBARAN: Can the Vision of the Supreme be different from the decision of these higher worlds?

SRI AUROBINDO: Why not? There can be a variation of the play of forces in the different planes. The play of forces may appear as the destiny were in favour of one or another group of forces and that they were the makers of destiny. There are different layers of destiny, so to say. When one is born one comes with a physical destiny, then there is the vital and mental destiny. By bringing in vital and mental forces the physical destiny can be changed. It is the mental destiny that is difficult to change. The astrologers are usually concerned with the physical destiny. They don't see the others and hence make mistakes because they look at the physical graph of things. Only the Supreme Vision can't be changed.

NIRODBARAN: What is the Supreme Vision?

SRI AUROBINDO: Nobody knows.

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NIRODBARAN: Not nobody; you must know, and as you said just now the New World Order is bound to come, that must be the Supreme Vision?

PURANI: But at present before the Supreme has a chance there are many others who are already busy with their own idea of the New World.

NIRODBARAN: To the supramental vision the Supreme Vision must be known.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but I haven't yet become the Supermind and no one knows whether the Supermind will descend.¹

NIRODBARAN: How is that? You have already said it is bound to descend.

SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): But I didn't fix a date - whether it will be tomorrow or not.

NIRODBARAN: The Mother seems to have said that the Divine Descent will take place when everything will be dark with not a ray of hope anywhere.

SRI AUROBINDO: That was the ancient prophecy she repeated.

PURANI : I suppose the world is sufficiently dark already. England alone stands in the way of Hitler's triumph.

SRI AUROBINDO: Have you not read the Mother's prayer this year?²

NIRODBARAN: I have.

SRI AUROBINDO: Those who received it in France are already realising what it means.

EVENING

NIRODBARAN: I couldn't quite follow Krishnaprem when he said that this war is not a real war. His words are: "It is the troubled wake of a ship that has passed, the trail of a snail, the dead ash of a forest fire," etc.

¹What is perhaps meant - as we suspect from other pronouncements of Sri Aurobindo and from the Mother's statements — is that bodily Sri Aurobindo had not yet become the Supermind. In other words, the final plenary stage of supramentalisation - the total transformation of the body by the Supermind's descending power - had still not been reached.

²The New Year message of 1940: "A year of silence and expectation... Let us find, O Lord, our entire support in Thy Grace alone."

Page -831

SRI AUROBINDO : He means the psychic past as he makes clear afterwards. All Karma that has been done in the past has passed into the inner worlds. What is here now is only the result of it. It is a one- sided view of the matter. Of course he takes the psychic in another sense than ours as he speaks of the world-psyche.

PURANI : He takes his stand on the Buddhistic Karma theory.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. His contention that everything is fixed reduces this world to Maya. Even the result of the psychic past belonged once to the material world before it passed away into the subtle. And the material can always modify the result. He himself admits that in the case of Hitler he could reject the influence. So others. It is the same as in Yoga. If you accept the influence, it will then try to throw its formations on you and come true in the material plane. There also the manner of acceptance makes a difference. If you accept it in one way, a certain result comes; you accept it in another, then there is a different result.

NIRODBARAN: Krishnaprem says England has some soul-purpose to manifest.

SRI AUROBINDO: He puts a big if and says that if it is so England will win.

SATYENDRA: Yes, he says that every drop of his blood says this. His English blood!

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, in spite of his being a Sannyasi, his blood is English. At this moment all Englishmen will feel like that. Even Arjava who cavilled at the English would have felt so. By soul-purpose Krishnaprem means perhaps some higher values. But standing for higher values doesn't make for victory. Look at Poland and Czechoslovakia. Perhaps you may say Poland made many mistakes, but wasn't Czechoslovakia absolutely blameless?

SATYENDRA: Japan has now openly declared her aim and policy toward Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies and the South Sea Islands.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but let China be settled first, though there is no sign of settling.

These Russians are the most brazen-faced people. Have you seen Molotov's speech?

PURANI: No.

SRI AUROBINDO: He says America is trying to be imperialistic in the Western hemisphere. That is the move he sees behind the

Page -832

Pan-American conference (regarding the transfer of American territories to the Western Powers). And Russia is going to take steps against America and England's illegal action in freezing the Baltic States' finance. What can she do against America?

NIRODBARAN: To these Russians everybody is imperialistic except themselves and their grabbing of the Baltic States is for self-protection! The world is not so foolish as to believe that.

SRI AUROBINDO: That is meant for the communists who will believe everything from Russia.

4 AUGUST 1940

SRI AUROBINDO (addressing Purani): The death-sentence has been passed on De Gaulle.

PURANI: Yes, and he has given a reply.

SRI AUROBINDO: Has he? What does he say?

PURANI: He says the Pétain Government is dictated to by Germany. At the end of the war he will appeal to the public to give their verdict.

Rumania is now turning away from the Axis - perhaps it wants to go to Russia.

NIRODBARAN: What is the use if Hitler divides and gives away Rumania to other powers?

SRI AUROBINDO: Rumania's claim on Transylvania is right because the majority of people there are Rumanians and they don't want to go to Hungary. Already their peasant leader is organising resistance against any such move.

PURANI : This is all due to their separate policy. If they had made the entente together, these things wouldn't have happened.

SRI AUROBINDO: No, then their entente would have been formidable. Turkey tried her best for it. Turkey, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia are fighting races; Armenia and Greece are not.

EVENING

Purani started a talk on art and on Coomaraswamy's criticism on art, saying that he had written very well.

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PURANI: Coomaraswamy says the artist expresses his individuality in his art.

SRI AUROBINDO: Individuality? Who has done that? Does he mention any name? Michelangelo?

PURANI: No, he means the ego, perhaps.

SRI AUROBINDO: The ego! That is different. But an artist doesn't express his individuality. I don't think Coomaraswamy is right there. A poet may do that. If you speak of individual tendencies it is different. An artist may have theories and ideas about art but he does not express his individuality. In modern art, the artist figures much, while in old Indian art he didn't: he remained behind.

5 AUGUST 1940

PURANI: I was reading Okakura's book on Japan. He says that even if the Japanese have to be Westernised to protect their independence, they will go to that length.

SRI AUROBINDO: Being Westernised won't serve. As you say, the Western nations lost their independence.

EVENING

Champaklal and Purani standing at either extremity were making gestures at each other; Champaklal burst suddenly into laughter and Purani joined in. Sri Aurobindo looked at them. They continued to laugh.

SRI AUROBINDO: Unspoken jokes seem to be more successful.

PURANI: Champaklal was showing different poses of standing.

The British have started arresting the Japanese.

SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): Yes, and they say it is not retaliation. Extraordinary coincidences, I suppose.

PURANI: Yes, many such coincidences are possible in this world.

SATYENDRA: This is better than wordy warfare.

PURANI: The Bengal Government is taking many communal measures. The Hindus should organise.

NIRODBARAN: They held a protest day on the 4th.

SRI AUROBINDO: Mere protest won't do anything.

Page -834

NIRODBARAN: Shyama Prasad is the only figure now who says other measures have to be taken.

6 AUGUST 1940

PURANI: The Viceroy has issued an ordinance banning all volunteer organisations — political or communal. Only for social service can an organisation be retained, sanctioned by the provincial Government.

SRI AUROBINDO: I see. That would give an occasion for starting civil disobedience.

PURANI: Yes. One good thing is that the Khaksars will go —all the other organisations too: Hindu Sabha, Mahavir Dal, etc.

NIRODBARAN: Gandhi will issue another threatening statement. But the Government may be taking advance measures to stop any civil disobedience movement.

SATYENDRA: That won't prevent Gandhi. If he issues a call, people will join.

SRI AUROBINDO: How can that be possible without organisation?

SATYENDRA: During the Dandee march it happened automatically.

SRI AUROBINDO: But he admitted there were many mistakes. Of course he says he will start the civil disobedience in his own way. Nobody knows what that way is.

PURANI: The Viceroy says that in any such private organisation one man gets more power than he is legally entitled to, which is not desirable. The Government has enough capacity to deal with any trouble.

SRI AUROBINDO: Has it? The Government hasn't shown it recently.

PURANI: People can join the Civil Guard, the Viceroy says.

SATYENDRA: Setalvad has declared for expanding the Council and trying for independence after the war.

SRI AUROBINDO: Trying for what?

SATYENDRA: For independence.

SRI AUROBINDO : Independence? He can try for twenty thousand years, he won't get it. He has been trying already by giving speeches, writing, etc.

Page -835

PURANI: Have you read the article in the Sunday Hindu the collapse of France? It says that Reynaud's speech helped to the morale of the army.

SRI AUROBINDO: How? Churchill also said that if England fell they would go to the Empire and fight from there. That didn't break their morale.

SATYENDRA: And his appeal to America was to avert the armistice move in the cabinet.

PURANI: He says it is a mystery that when the whole nation was against it, a small number of people could make them accept the armistice.

SRI AUROBINDO: When a small number of persons is determined to do a thing, they can do it. It has been done any number of times in history. There is no mystery there. Here especially, when there was no chance of communication with the people or the Parliament, it was quite easy. He assumes that constitutional opposition would have been possible. But how when there was no proper senate? At Bordeaux there were only fifty or sixty members and they were all Laval's men. Lebrun played into the hands of these people.

PURANI : Mandel is said to be the natural son of Clemenceau. It may be true as is evidenced by his energy and vigour.

SRI AUROBINDO: And Weygand is said to be the illegitimate son of Leopold II, one of the most notorious kings in history, Weygand is also very rich, holding many shares of the Suez Canal. A lieutenant here, who used to attend the French cabinet meetings as a police officer, said that Mandel was the only clean and honest man. In Reynaud there was something excited and unsteady, but he was very intelligent. Outwardly his decisions were all right but one could see that inwardly he was liable to make many mistakes.

SATYENDRA: It is lucky that England has got a leader now. Nobody knows what the old Government would have done by now. The back numbers of the New Statesman and Nation make a very interesting study. They are still discussing the defection of Belgium. One doesn't know what they will do when they hear of Paris' fall and the Vichy Government. When one reads these back numbers one feels like a minor god who knows the after-events and is ahead of them while others are still occupied with the old events.

Page -836

SRI AUROBINDO: They show how people commit mistakes in their judgment and calculation similar to what we are doing ourselves at the present time. (Laughter)

SATYENDRA: People chafe at these past mistakes. If they knew of their past lives life would become a burden.

SRI AUROBINDO: And yet they want to know their past.

EVENING

Radio news: The Germans are concentrating for an attack on the Channel ports and are embarking and disembarking in the Baltic.

PURANI: So it is true that the Germans are preparing.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. Perhaps they will attack from Holland and Belgium. The Baltic is too far away. If it is a quick stroke and cleverly done, then it is possible and it depends on where they land. The British Navy can't protect the whole coastline.

PURANI: But if after landing they can be checked successfully once, then it will break their morale. Hitherto they have thought themselves invincible.

SRI AUROBINDO: Not one check, but many checks.

PURANI: At any rate England knows all about their plan and preparation.

7 AUGUST 1940

SRI AUROBINDO: Hitler's invasion can't come off on the l0th.

PURANI : He still has three days' time. Otherwise it will break his sequence. He is preparing.

SRI AUROBINDO: I wish it had been fixed to come after the 15th; I don't want the Darshan to be disturbed.

NIRODBARAN: Hiren Dutt finds The Life Divine obscure and loose.

SRI AUROBINDO: Obscure to himself?

PURANI: I haven't much regard for his opinion and learning. I met him in Bombay.

SRI AUROBINDO: He has an ordinary mind and it runs in the traditional groove. When the Arya was being published, I think he said that he couldn't understand it.

Page -837

NIRODBARAN: Yet he has made a name as a scholar.

SRI AUROBINDO: Not a very big name!

NIRODBARAN: Prashanta Mahalnavis seems to have said The Life Divine is Ganja?

SRI AUROBINDO: He is a Brahmo, isn't he?

NIRODBARAN: Yes.

PURANI: He means he found it as intoxicating as Ganja?

NIRODBARAN: Oh no, Brahmos don't touch Ganja.

PURANI: He was the same man who came here with Tagore and was not allowed to accompany Tagore during his interview with you. He was very angry. I remember the story of a Brahmo. He was asked by somebody where some particular theatre was; he said he didn't know. He realised that he had told a lie and then called the man back and said, "I do know, but I won't tell you." (Laughter)

NIRODBARAN: That is Heramba Maitra.

SATYENDRA: I like this comment about Ganja. He means we have been smoking Ganja in solitude here.

NIRODBARAN: Oh, they think much worse than that.

PURANI : Some of these people are strictly ethical and moral.

SRI AUROBINDO: That is the Pharisee's "I am not a sinner" type.

Hiren Dutt was a clever solicitor. He was the solicitor in my case, in all my cases, I think, and he was one of the few who remained faithful after the collapse of our Movement. When the meetings were, getting smaller and smaller, he was the one who was always present. Ramananda was another.

NIRODBARAN: Ramananda has now joined the Hindu Movement.

EVENING

SATYENDRA: China is also threatening Indo-China!

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, in case they allow Japan to use any ports.

PURANI: It seems Italy has launched an attack against British Somaliland and Egypt.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but not against Egypt. It is evident that the British have a very insufficient force there. I don't understand why Australian soldiers are being sent to England. They ought to have been out there.

Page -838

Then Purani brought in the talk about Nandalal Bose's coming here and said that it must be due to consideration for Tagore that he has suspended his coming for this Darshan.

SRI AUROBINDO: Artists can't keep their resolutions!

8 AUGUST 1940

PURANI: The Viceroy has issued a declaration that the expansion of the Council can't be delayed any more. India will have the right to frame her own constitution as soon as possible after the war.

SRI AUROBINDO: Did he say that?

PURANI : Yes, and he has invited Abul Kalam to see him.

SRI AUROBINDO: But how is the constitution to be framed? What procedure?

PURANI : He doesn't say. It may not be a round table conference again. .

SRI AUROBINDO: Will the Indian leaders be able to come to an agreement? If the Congress stands for the Constituent Assembly, Jinnah won't consent.

SATYENDRA: If the Viceroy has conceded our right to frame our own constitution, it is quite reasonable.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, only people don't listen to reason nowadays.

SATYENDRA: And it is a greater step than Dominion Status.

SRI AUROBINDO: Certainly.

SATYENDRA: And the expansion of the Council, that is also quite reasonable.

NIRODBARAN: But one must know what part they would play.

SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so. But the Government can't be expected to pass all authority to people who have no idea about war and no experience of it.

PURANI: But what will be the procedure for the constitution?

SRI AUROBINDO: It is better not to quarrel over that now. The Indians can decide that themselves afterwards and they ought to be able to do it if they can speak of a National Government.

SATYENDRA: On the whole it is a very good advance unless there is some catch. One must read the text first.

Page -839

SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so. It depends also on what powers they give to the Council. The Viceroy ought to have seen Rajagopalachari too. Perhaps he was not in Madras during the Viceroy's stay.

SATYENDRA: Yes, Rajagopalachari is the leader now.

SRI AUROBINDO: No, Gandhi is the leader. But he doesn't want to lead and the others refuse to follow him. (Laughter)

PURANI: Perhaps there may be a conference of Premiers in which Rajagopalachari will be present. Now only Punjab and Bengal are left to decide. Sind also to some extent.

SRI AUROBINDO: Sind's stand is very near to that of the Congress.

PURANI: But the Princes may stand in the way. They ought to make a common cause.

SRI AUROBINDO: How can they when the Congress has intimated that they have no right to exist and that in a free India they may have no place? If the Congress had kept its claims moderate, then by an inner pressure of circumstances they would have come round. You have read C. P. Ramaswamy's speech the other day? It is a very telling speech. He says: You ask us to depend on you, but you have already spoken about our extinction in the future constitution of India. How can we acquiesce in that extinction?

By the way, the Viceroy has banned only drills with weapons and what they call para-military uniforms — any that may have a military-uniform semblance. Apart from that, organisations can exist.

NIRODBARAN: Somebody said to Charu Dutt, "You speak of the dominating influence of Sri Aurobindo over the sadhaks. How is it then that idiots living under his influence produce only third-rate works?"

SRI AUROBINDO: Has the "somebody" read Nishikanta's poems? If he also calls them third-rate, he must be an idiot himself

NIRODBARAN: Dutt was speaking highly - as in fact all do, Dilip, etc. — of Jyoti's book Sandhane (In Quest). According to Dutt she has taken a long stride from Rakta Golap (Red Rose), her last book.

SRI AUROBINDO: I see!

NIRODBARAN: Dutt says Rakta Golap is an imitation of Tagore's poetic-prose novel Char Adhyaya (Four Chapters). Only the style is very good. That is true to some extent. She gave most of her

Page -840

attention to style and tried to make it poetic. And Sandhane she wrote long ago. Rakta Golap was the latest.

Sri Aurobindo was amused to hear that the latest book was inferior to the previous one.

SRI AUROBINDO : What does the idiot say about it?

NIRODBARAN: He may not have read it.

SRI AUROBINDO: But can a novel be written in a poetic style?

NIRODBARAN: Tagore's is not a novel but a novelette, one may say.

SRI AUROBINDO: One can write a romance in such a style.

PURANI: Tagore is doing so many new things. They say he has written mystic poems about death after his recent serious illness — what death is like, one's feelings about it and so on.

SRI AUROBINDO: Anybody can write that out of imagination; one needn't have any experience.

NIRODBARAN: And everywhere he is talking of his approaching death.

SRI AUROBINDO: He has been dying for the last twenty years. When he came here, he spoke of it.

PURANI: Even his stories are not very good.

NIRODBARAN: Not true. He is considered one of the best story-writers.

PURANI: I mean like Chatterjee.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but he is not a novelist.

NIRODBARAN: No.

PURANI: You have seen Patrika's review of Nishikanta's book? While Tagore has praised his chhanda and bhasha, people call it halting and Sanskritised.

SRI AUROBINDO: Stupid review!

EVENING

Satyendra said something about the Commonwealth. Sri Aurobindo then spoke about the recent declaration of the Viceroy.

SRI AUROBINDO: The British have more of diplomacy but less of the right spirit. A great deal depends on the way things are put. This statement is most uninspiring and unconvincing. And there is a

Page -841

snag too. If the constitution is unacceptable to large and important sections, then the Government can't agree to it. That means that if Jinnah and the Princes don't accept it, there is no settlement.

SATYENDRA: Nehru says the Sevadal won't be dissolved. They will keep their organisation.

NIRODBARAN: With lathi?¹

SATYENDRA: Why lathi? It is non-violent.

SRI AUROBINDO: Or is the lathi for others to beat them with! (Laughter)

PURANI : Yes, they can offer their lathi to the opponent and ask to be thrashed.

SATYENDRA: That would be ideal non-violence.

SRI AUROBINDO: A hundred per cent!

PURANI : Somaliland is now being attacked by the Italians.

SRI AUROBINDO: I thought they had already taken it.

NIRODBARAN: The British are retiring after inflicting heavy losses.

SRI AUROBINDO: And without any loss to themselves! Bhaskar has again put an exclamation sign. (Laughter) They don't seem to have any force there at all.

PURANI: Only camel corps.

SRI AUROBINDO: I don't understand their war strategy. no head or tail to it.

PURANI: They think if they win the war, they can take the place back.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but if Egypt loses, their chances of winning the war will be jeopardised. Egypt occupies an import position.

NIRODBARAN: Shyama Prasad has given a one-month limit to the Bengal Government.

SRI AUROBINDO: Inspired by Bose's success? But there won't be any Muslim to join him.

NIRODBARAN: Tagore has been made an Oxford Doctor and got a Latin address.

SRI AUROBINDO: And he replied in Sanskrit. Gwayer could have spoken in Irish.

¹A stick or staff used for defence.

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9 AUGUST 1940

SATYENDRA: Everybody is silent on the Viceroy's declaration. Jinnah, Gandhi, C. R. nobody says anything. And he is interviewing the leaders all over again. He seems to be bent on expansion of his council, but perhaps nobody will accept it except the Liberals.

NIRODBARAN: Why, Savarkar has said he will.

SRI AUROBINDO: He has given qualified assent. He said some of his demands remained unsatisfied.

SATYENDRA: Our Suren has again covered his body all over.

NIRODBARAN: In anticipation of a cold!

SRI AUROBINDO: Or expecting an anticipation.

NIRODBARAN: Today when he was doing pranam at the photo in the Reception Room in that protective attire, a visitor for Darshan was looking at him very intently. Suren ought to be removed from the gate duty. Otherwise it will give a bad impression of us.

SRI AUROBINDO: The visitor was perhaps looking with admiration and saying to himself, "This man is so sick and yet has so much devotion!"

SATYENDRA: Suren and Manibhai seem to be friendly. They were talking very cheerfully.

SRI AUROBINDO: Manibhai was talking of his health and Suren of his illness?

PURANI: The British don't seem to want to defend Somaliland. They have no forces there, only some camel corps.

NIRODBARAN: What chances has the camel corps against mechanised units?

SRI AUROBINDO: The camel corps also is mechanised, they say, or perhaps they mean the camels are mechanical?

PURANI: If they don't think Somaliland is important, what about Egypt? Italians have one-and-a-half lakh troops in Libya, while the British have only a few.

NIRODBARAN: Egypt has no forces?

SRI AUROBINDO: It has a trained army. But it is neutral.

PURANI: Will it remain neutral even when it is attacked?

SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): In this world of Leopold, I don't know what it will do.

NIRODBARAN: The American ambassador has said that Leopold is a prisoner in his own castle.

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SRI AUROBINDO: That is to gain people's sympathy.

NIRODBARAN: Also he says that Leopold informed the British about his surrender two or three days earlier.

SRI AUROBINDO: How is that? If they had been informed, they would have taken immediate steps to withdraw their troops instead of exposing them to grave peril and there was no mention of that in the papers.

NIRODBARAN: And he says further that Leopold was compelled to surrender, seeing so much destruction and suffering and the risk of complete annihilation of his army.

SRI AUROBINDO: If he was so much moved by the suffering, he could have called the Germans in at the very outset.

NIRODBARAN: That idiot about whom Charu Dutt was speaking also said that Nolini has only an assumed depth, he is a soi-disant philosopher or something like it. He said something about Anilbaran too.

SRI AUROBINDO: Who is this man, I would like to know then his depth or height could be judged. It seems he has only depth. And what is his opinion about me? Third-rate too? If my influence has produced third-rate works, my work can't be any higher.

NIRODBARAN: Charu Dutt doesn't seem to consider Nishikanta's poetry in Alakananda as first-class.

SRI AUROBINDO: Is he a good judge of poetry?

NIRODBARAN: I don't think so.

SRI AUROBINDO: Then his opinion has no value.

NIRODBARAN: He didn't, at first reading, understand the poems. After he had read them over and over again, they were clear to him, he said.

SRI AUROBINDO: What kind of a mind these people have, I wonder!

NIRODBARAN: They are very simple poems, except for one or two.

SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so.

NIRODBARAN: And people object to Nishikanta's poems because they are all centred on the Mother and yourself, not so much because they are spiritual or lack variety.

SRI AUROBINDO: How do they know about the Mother?

PURANI: The poems can very well be taken as addressed to the Divine Mother.

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SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. Besides, all the poems are not like that- "Garur Gadi", for instance. He has variety too. Of course they are spiritual and mystic.

EVENING

SRI AUROBINDO (to Purani): Do you know anything about why Baron is being recalled from Chandernagore?

PURANI: No, I only heard that he has committed some political indiscretion.

SRI AUROBINDO: It seems that recently he invited Subhas Bose to his house and for that reason the Viceroy has asked the Governor to transfer him from there.

PURANI: How could Baron do that? And how does he know Bose?

NIRODBARAN: Probably through Dilip.

SRI AUROBINDO: These people are wonderful. It will go against the Ashram. He ought to have known about Bose's activities and the consequences of his visit.

NIRODBARAN: Japan is concentrating her navy towards Indo-China.

SRI AUROBINDO: No, not concentrating, that doesn't matter. Japan is heading towards Indo-China.

NIRODBARAN: Wants to swallow it, perhaps. Being a little hasty.

SRI AUROBINDO: How? On the contrary this is the time, when other nations are engaged elsewhere. The only thing is that the Japanese are very involved in China. Don't know how effective this move will be.

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