25 June 1969 I told you I have a suspicion that the Lord is taking an active interest in our class. Now it appears to be more than a suspicion - well, I will give you today evidence of how He is taking interest. They may be small but they can be significant, if we know how to look at these things. Not that He didn't take an interest from the beginning, but we weren't perhaps so conscious about it - at least I was not - and the consciousness seems to have descended, since January! As I was looking through my small collection of books, I came across, very unexpectedly, this green-covered notebook; it had no business to be 40 Intense concentration of consciousness, often

8 October 1969 Dear children, I hope my addressing you as children doesn't make you think that I am inspired by your great Prime Minister,243 that I am imitating her style, her manner, though I admit that the expression coming from the mouth of a lady Prime Minister is sweeter than in the metallic male tone of a teacher. The word 'metallic' reminds me again of something else. Once, in the presence of Sri Aurobindo, I sneezed very loudly. He was sitting on the bed, we were around Him. I don't know what provoked my olfactory nerves, but I had no control. The more I tried to control the sneeze, the more it seemed ready to burst and finally it did. And He remarked: "What

23 July 1969 That spectacle of shoes over there, this plethora of shoes of various sorts made by Govindaraj,95 reminds me of a queer vision I had long, long ago. I've spoken about it earlier, that I have something of the nature of Hamlet in me. Sri Aurobindo said that, all the time, all the time, I Hamletise! I don't know whether you understand the meaning of the word. When I'm faced with a situation where I can't take a decision (shall I do this or shall I do that), I have no vital intuition; I never had any which could tell me what decisions should be made, what path should be followed. Sometimes I refer the problem to a higher authority to help me decide these smal

18 June 1969 [Nirod-da narrates the Mother's story of the boy whom She had taught to put his fists in his pocket whenever he was angry, so that he wouldn't respond violently. ] I'm sure many of you here are boys of this sort; about the girls I don't know! Mother surely doesn't mean here the practice of non-violence. What she means, I think, is control over one's passions. Control of passions is one thing, non-violence another. Those who are apostles of non-violence will ask you to practise it in all circumstances; but, as you know, Mother and Sri Aurobindo don't hold this view. There are some occasions when the use of the fist is necessary. If a ruffian comes, then you

24 September 1969 Well, friends, some good news! Today there's a marriage party to which I have been cordially invited from the side of the bride. So perhaps our party here might get cut short, I hope you won't mind. Once in a blue moon, such parties come to us. Don't grudge us our enjoyment at your expense! I read out to you quite a long article by one of our gentlemen in the Ashram, Charu Dutt; and you've had some fresh glimpses into the life of our Master. You've also observed, I believe, how close a tie Charu Dutt had with Sri Aurobindo, not only in this life but in many past lives; and the tie was so close and intimate that he could not bear the separation f

8 September 1969 When I told you in my talk last Wednesday that I went, like the Lord, to prison, but, unlike Him, saw nothing, perhaps you 190These are noble characters in Bankim Chandra's novel. The author of the article is saying here that Sri Aurobindo is equal to all of them at once. 191Foreigner, in Urdu and Hindi. The word often carries a derogatory connotation. 192A temple to the Divine Mother who is representative of the nation. Page-135 didn't get the hint. Well, I did go to prison! After my matriculation, in 1920 or 1921, the Non-Cooperation Movement193 started. People were leaving schools and colleges to spread the word in the village