Medical Humour: General 193S MYSELF: X has profuse 'whites'. SRI AUROBINDO: What on earth is this word? 'Winter? Wintes? It may be profuse, but it is not legible. For God's sake don't imitate me. MYSELF; The word you tumbled upon is 'whites' meaning leucorrhoea. But I thought it should be our ideal to imitate you! SRI AUROBINDO: Good Lord, what an hi I could not do worse myself. MYSELF: She took one pill which she says gave her a lot of burning in her eyes. I washed her eyes, but it caused much uneasiness in the head. But the pill was quite harmless. SRI AUROBINDO: All that is of course X's imagination. She decides in herself that t

PUBLISHER'S NOTE 1994 This book represents a new and, to the general public, quite an unfamiliar aspect of Sri Aurobindo — his humour. It was first published to mark the Birth Centenary of Sri Aurobindo in 1972 by Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry under the title Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo— Part II. It is now reprinted by Sri Mira Trust, Pondicherry under its new title. Preface There is a common belief that yogis and saints are grave and reserved by nature. They have no sense of humour. Sri Ramakrishna was probably the first among them who is known to have shattered this false notion. Sri Aurobindo was revered and

1934 MYSELF: I send you a poem. I didn't send it yesterday because it was the day of our vengeance and who knows my little verse might have been the last straw....But since all people profit at your expense, it wouldn't be wiser for me to stand aloof. So the poem and your kind opinion on it. SRI AUROBINDO: My opinion is "good, but not good enough"—more stuff is needed. It is good you did not throw your straw on the waters yesterday—the flood might have carried it away into the beginning of next week. MYSELF: I can't resist the temptation of disturbing your Sabbath, Sir; here is a poem. The forceps were indispensable, but I hope it will be an 'Angel'! SRI A

1935 MYSELF: By the way, people get poems, pictures in meditation and I seem to get only letters and points for letters! Since letters and discussions are interdicted I have been obliged to draw inspiration from sleep. And I find that sleeping has a decided advantage in this Yoga! SRI AUROBINDO: You get letters in meditation! that would be fine—it would save me the trouble of writing then, simply project into your meditation instead of sending through Nolini! No objection to sleep—the land of Nod has also its treasures. MYSELF: But do you really mean that till 7 a.m. your pen goes on in aeroplanic speed? Then it must be due more to outside correspondenc

Medical Humour: Boil 1935 MYSELF: My cold has given me the quick realisation that everything in this world—including the Divine, is Maya. What Shankara and Buddha realised by sadhana, I realise by a simple cold! SRI AUROBINDO: No need of sadhana for that—anybody with a fit of the blues can manage that. It is to get out of the Maya that sadhana is needed. Page - 61 1936 MYSELF: My brain is now less hampered by the body's indisposition. My boil has burst and as you see From the depression I am free. Thanks Guru, thanks to thee! , SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, I got irritated last night by your persistent boiling and put a gigantic F

her little ones at the Mother's feet, as if asking for her blessings. Two of them grew up to become Big Boy and Kiki, and Kiki was the one who used to attend your meditations. She even had visions and experiences so that her whole body would begin to quiver. But Big Boy was not very impressed by all that and would often fight with her and beat her. (Laughter) "And the cats were so well looked after, it was as if they were royalty! There was always milk as well as fish for them, and. sometimes you would feed them with your own hand. Nolinida said that the Mother had made a pact of friendship with the King of the Cats. In fact, all kinds of beings and spirits of the anima

was going to visit his friend Diderot who was in prison. He had in his pocket a journal in which a question had been set for discussion. Taking it out, he glanced at the question with a view to writing an essay on it. Suddenly he felt innumerable ideas pouring down into his head in a golden shower. Unable to bear the weight of this descent he lay down under a tree and was lost in a swoon. When he came to he noticed that tears had coursed down his cheeks uninterruptedly so that the front of his vest was soaked through. But the article he wrote after this incident, though it reverberated throughout the land and won him renown and rewards, did not contain even one hundredth par

SRI AUROBINDO A DREAM DIALOGUE WITH CHILDREN SRI AUROBINDO A dream-dialogue with children THE ASHRAM CHILDREN AND SRI AUROBINDO'S LIFE A DREAM-DIALOGUE One day after Sri Aurobindo's passing, I had a dream. I saw that quite a number of children of our Ashram from various age-groups had crowded into Sri Aurobindo's room and were looking around with curious eyes. I wondered how they had trespassed on Sri Aurobindo's privacy. Who could have given them permission? But the children took no notice of my presence and felt quite at ease. This spectacle of innocence and ligh

and colleges, we started boycott - a word which we were the first to use in India - and passive resistance, as well as nonacceptance of British justice and of British goods. In short, it was, in Gandhi's words, 'non-violent non-cooperation'. Simultaneously, in the Yugantar were published articles on the need for a revolution. Thus, we began a conflict on two fronts: with the government as well as with the Moderates and their loyalty to the British. For these reasons, both the paper and the National Party became very influential, all over the country. In the history of Indian journalism I believe no other paper has ever equalled the dramatic impact that the Bande Mataram had o

He greatly admired French culture and wished to make it possible for the students from Baroda to pursue their higher studies in France. But, unlike you, those boys did not seem keen about French. Of course, you have the great privilege of studying French with the Mother herself." "You also taught French to Nolinida and Amritada, didn't you?" "Who told you that?" "Everybody knows about it. Not only that, the first books that they read were the works of Racine and Molière!" Sri Aurobindo replied, "They were already so learned that I could hardly start by teaching them the conjugations of verbs. I believed that once they had learned to love the beauty and swe