TALKS WITH SRI AUROBINDO Volume 2 ----------------------- 1 MARCH 1940 Nirodbaran was twisting a letter in his hands. Sri Aurobindo, hearing the faint noise, looked back.. SRI AUROBINDO: What's that? NIRODBARAN: Z's letter. He wants guidance. PURANI: Any more of Dutt's stories? NIRODBARAN: No more. He has stopped. SRI AUROBINDO: His story of my meeting him at Baroda Station may be true, as I used to go very often to the Station. And about his earthen tumbler incident, there may be some foundation to it, but I object to the shooting incident. Ask him the names of those two Marathi youths. There was no one I knew who was q

Talks with Sri Aurobindo Volume 2 Nirodbaran SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM PONDICHERRY

20 OCTOBER 1940 PURANI: Gandhi has declared his programme: he will start civil disobedience with twenty people of his Ashram - no outsiders — including two ladies, and he has even asked the Congress Working Committee members not to attend the meetings. SRI AUROBINDO: And if the Government doesn't arrest them? SATYENDRA: He may go through the whole of India and he will establish the right of free speech. SRI AUROBINDO: But only Gandhi's followers may not be arrested. Others won't be free. He is fighting for freedom for everybody. Is this the new movement? Nothing new there! PURANI: It seems Azad differed from Gandhi and was on the point of res

7 JULY 1940 PURANI: Baudoin is furious with the British. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. He says that this aggressive action of the navy is a blot on English honour — people who are entitled to honour! Have you heard that the banker and the Vice-Consul of Pondicherry are back? PURANI: No. SRI AUROBINDO: They are back and now the blockade will be withdrawn. Trains won't be stopped; the currency will be all right. PURANI: They must have settled with the Madras Governor. SRI AUROBINDO: Maybe. But nothing is known on this side. I mean, what the Pondy Governor has decided. DR. RAO : Weygand, in a statement appearing in today's paper, has laid t

15 SEPTEMBER 1940 SRI AUROBINDO (addressing Purani): Have you mentioned yesterday's points to Anilbaran? What does he say? PURANI : I have told him a few of them as there was not enough time. He is coming round and was especially impressed by the example of the machine. SATYENDRA: All these questions don't arise if one accepts Nirvana as the goal. SRI AUROBINDO (smiling): Yes. SATYENDRA: After all the explanations the mystery remains the same. SRI AUROBINDO: Because Truth is supra-rational, hence it must be mysterious. Buddha in that way was most logical. He was concerned with how things started and got stuck together and how to unstick t

10 AUGUST 1940 PURANI: It seems that when Dilip was in Calcutta, he took Bose to Baron and introduced him. That is how they know each other. SRI AUROBINDO: Dilip has no sense of these things at all. He thinks, "You are a good man, he is a good man, both should meet each other." (Laughter) PURANI: Hitler's Blitzkrieg has got a rude shock. Page -845 SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, to lose sixty planes in one attack is something. Italy also has got a knock in Libya. She lost about sixteen. NIRODBARAN : The British superiority in the air has now been proved. If only they can achieve equality in numbers. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, Hitler is superior on land

21 DECEMBER 1940 DR. MANILAL : In the Gita Sri Krishna says that he knows all about Arjuna's past lives. SRI AUROBINDO: What about it? A past life can be known. DR. MANILAL : Then he knew all the details of his past life? SRI AUROBINDO: Who says that? Does Krishna say that? (Laughter) DR. MANILAL : He knew at least the salient features. SRI AUROBINDO: Not necessarily; he may have known only the general features. DR. MANILAL : Simply from general features one won't be able to make out the character and quality of a man. SRI AUROBINDO: Why not? The first impression one gets, on knowing the general features of a man's past life, is

16 MARCH 1940 NIRODBARAN: Sahana has given me two letters of yours to her explaining her experience of ascent and descent. She wants to know if the ascent and descent spoken of is the usual one or the major ascent and descent we heard about from you the other day. SRI AUROBINDO (after reading both the letters): The first one is the usual ascent and descent. The consciousness has not got fixed above in the higher planes. It is the mental opening through the head and Page-557 going up. The second one is the major ascent, rather the beginning. It has to become fixed above and the descent of the higher consciousness has to take place and transform the

22 MAY 1940 PURANI: Nehru is against Satyagraha at present in view of the condition of the Allies. SRI AUROBINDO: Why don't the leaders come to an agreement? NIRODBARAN: They are all still thinking and thinking. SATYENDRA: Yes, they are doing constructive work. NIRODBARAN: Charkha? Perhaps they are now waiting for Amery to make some move. SRI AUROBINDO: He will be busy with the defence of England. SATYENDRA: The German drive seems to be to encircle the Allies after they have reached the sea and then to attack the Maginot Line from the rear. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. PURANI: The Allies' position here seems to be the same as in Norway and

22 JUNE 1940 SRI AUROBINDO: The French Government is still at Bordeaux and negotiations have only started now! The Pondicherry Page -739 Government news was that the French Governor had left for Casablanca. PURANI: The Germans speak of the heroic resistance of the French Army and say that their terms will not be unjust or dishonourable. SRI AUROBINDO: No, they say they won't be shameful but severe. SATYENDRA: The Italian news says that they won't be as bad as Versailles. SRI AUROBINDO: They may not be as bad but still bad enough. If, as is reported, Hitler wants all the colonies contiguous with British colonies, then our position become