28 JANUARY 1939 SRI AUROBINDO: People say animals can't think or reason. It is not at all true. Their intelligence has evolved to act only within the narrow limits of life, according to their own needs. But they have latent faculties which have not been developed. Cats have a language of their own. They utter different kinds of mews for different purposes. For instance, when the mother cat mews in a particular tone and rhythm after leaving her kittens behind a box, the little ones understand that they are not to move from that place until she comes back and repeats that mew. It is through the tone and the rhythm through the tone and the rhythm that cats e

13DECEMBER 1939 SRI AUROBINDO (hearing laughter): What is the matter? NIRODBARAN: Purani and Champaklal are laughing together. SRI AUROBINDO:: That is their usual business. CHAMPAKLAL: Purani has hurt his big toe again. PURANI: A plank fell on it. Page- 303 SRI AUROBINDO: You are always knocking or pushing it over. (Laughter) At this moment, Nirodbaran, by inattention,, happened to spill some water from a bowl. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): What's the matter now? You are doing the same thing as Purani along your line. NIRODBARAN (as Sri Aurobindo started reclining): In the New Statesman a reviewer quotes a line of Turner's p

11 FEBRUARY 1940 PURANI: Paul Brunton has come out again with an article on Yoga in the Indian Review. SRI AUROBINDO: What does he say? PURANI: The same old thing — that Yoga must be practised for humanity, so that humanity may benefit. SRI AUROBINDO: He has always said that. PURANI: He says that now he is under the guidance of a great Yogi who doesn't want to reveal himself. The Yogi has an eminent disciple whom everybody knows If the disciple's name is disclosed , the Yogi will immediately be spotted. I wonder if he is hinting at you. Page-435 SRI AUROBINDO: Me? But I have no eminent disciple! PURANI: What about Sir Akbar Hydari? S

5 JANUARY 1939 Today again we had our usual discussion with Dr. Rao on the removal of splints, the growth of bone, its shadow in the X-ray picture, etc. After he had gone, the Mother asked Nirodbaran: "Up to what age can the skull-bone grow?" She said that she had seen cases where even at the age of fifty-five the skull had not completely ossified. "In such cases," she remarked, "the brain goes on developing." Then she departed for the general meditation. There was very little prospect of conversation afterwards, for every time after Dr. Rao's visit we would keep revolving the same problem, the disagreement among doctors, and cut jokes about it. But a question by Satyendra, follo

17 JANUARY 1940 Nirodbaran read out Tagore's letter to Nishikanto, in which Tagore says that Nishikanto's expression and rhythm are of a very high order and that he is a real artist but he complains of one thing - lack of variety: Nishikanto is like a one stringed lyre while the poetic mind demands a variety of tunes. Tagore quotes the Upanishad's " Raso vai sah" (He is verily the Delight.") and says that the poet's mind enters into everything. SRI AUROBINDO: ( After keeping silent for a while): It really comes to this: "You can't be a great poet unless you write like me!"( After a short pause) Take, for instance, Francis Thompson's "Hound of Heaven". How many people

18 JANUARY 1940 NIRODBARAN: I mean the expression of the spiritual truth behind by means of symbols. SRI AUROBINDO: Symbolic, then. There are various kinds of mystic poetry. EVENING NIRODBARAN: It seems difficult to have creative force in mystic symbolic poetry. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, it is difficult, but not impossible. NIRODBARAN: Is there any creative force in Mallarmé's famous sonnet on the swan? SRI AUROBINDO: I have forgotten the poem. NIRODBARAN: It is the poem in which he speaks of the wings being stuck in the frozen ice so the swan can't fly. SRI AUROBINDO: There is no creative force there. It i

24 FEBRUARY 1940 During breakfast the Mother spoke to Sri Aurobindo about his leg. THE MOTHER: An offer to cure your leg has come from Agarwal. He says he has got some Force by which he will rub his hand over your knee and cure it. He has cured one case of fracture like that. SRI AUROBINDO (shaking his head): You know there was another man who seemed to have such powers? THE MOTHER: No. CHAMPAKLAL: Yes, Mother; he has come for Darshan. Anilbaran says he has cured many cases of leprosy, typhoid and other illnesses. He cures by calling down your Force. THE MOTHER: If he cures with my Force, I can myself cure Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo can himself do

5 FEBRUARY 1940 NIRODBARAN: If it is a question of forces it should be easy to deal with them. SRI AUROBINDO: Why? Everything is due to the action of forces but it is not easy to deal with them. NIRODBARAN: Of course if some permanent structural change takes place it may be difficult. SRI AUROBINDO: The body also acquires structural and organic resistances - habits of the nerves and organs. NIRODBARAN: We speak of forces and beings. What is the difference between them? Are the forces also some kind of beings? SRI AUROBINDO: How do you mean? NIRODBARAN: I mean are the forces separate entities, like the beings? SRI AUROBINDO: The

22 JANUARY 1940 SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he didn't starve the public services. NIRODBARAN: Only, he spent a lot of money in going frequently to Europe, and has also erected a lot of buildings. SRI AUROBINDO: His European visits and the buildings have been good for the State. PURANI: Sir Sikandar has frankly admitted that the question is after all about the loaves and fishes of office and is no religious at all. NIRODBARAN: The Muslims don't really trust the Hindus, it seems. Even Sir Akbar said he couldn't trust Gandhi. SRI AUROBINDO: He doesn't trust Gandhi because of his way of life and philosophy. PURANI: It seems The Life D

20 FEBRUARY 1940 Dr. Manilal arrived at 10.00 a.m.; he made pranam to Sri Aurobindo and asked about the injured leg, for which he had advised "hanging" from the knee to help the flexion. SRI AUROBINDO: The leg is hanging very well. DR. MANILAL: I have brought some Ayurvedic medicine for you. I got it from a Madrasi lady who is an automatic writer and has great bhakti. She keeps your photo and Ramana Maharshi's and goes into trances. In her planchette sittings, some Rishi comes and dictates to her. I asked her about the defective flexion of your knee and she gave me this medicine, which is quite harmless—it is white mustard and raktapillai. She says your knee wil