Sri Aurobindo's Humour : an analysis & an anthology. Principles and art of humour with illustrations & related examples of Sri Aurobindo's humorous passages.
Chapter 14
In the preceding chapter ("Sri Aurobindo's Humour-Miscellany") we have given more than fifty examples of Sri Aurobindo's delectable and multisplendoured humour permeating long passages of his writings. The present chapter, on the other hand, will present the same rich humour of Sri Aurobindo but this time in rather short passages. Without unnecessarily wasting our time on the preliminaries let us directly go to the feast-table.
I. On himself
(1)NB: Did you not retire for five or six years for an exclusive and intensive meditation?
Sri Aurobindo: I am not aware that I did so. But my biographers probably know more about it than I do.1
(2)Sri Aurobindo on his biography as given by NB:
NB: You wrote that you had lived dangerously. All that we know is that you did not have enough money in England, - also in Pondicherry in the beginning. In Baroda you had a handsome pay, and in Calcutta you were quite well off. [Above "quite" Sri Aurobindo put!!!!].
Sri Aurobindo: I was so astonished by this succinct, complete and impeccably accurate biography of myself that I let myself go in answer! But afterwards thought that it was no use living more dangerously than I am obliged to, so I rubbed all out. My only answer now is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thank you for the safe, rich, comfortable and unadventurous career you have given me. I note also that the only danger man can run in this world is that of the lack of money. Karl Marx himself could not have made a more economic world of it! But I wonder whether that was what Nietzsche meant by living dangerously?2
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(3)No 'father' on me, please!
NB: Please don't mind our pungent remarks. We don't look upon you as a Bengali father but as an English one - who is a father and a friend.
Sri Aurobindo: That you is who? I decline the adhyaropa of an English or any father on me!
NB: But what is the relation you won't decline? Is it something besides the recognised ones in spiritual history?
Sri Aurobindo: I don't know. I always prefer something new to the old labels. I will see the Supramental and perhaps find something.3
(4)Sri Aurobindo with his nose to paper:
NB: If you could release that typescript document without any inconvenience to your eye, I can recharge the battery.
Sri Aurobindo: Release? I am seeking for mukti [liberation, release] myself.4
NB: What has happened to my typescript? Hibernating?
Sri Aurobindo: My dear sir, if you saw me nowadays with my nose to paper from afternoon to morning, deciphering, deciphering, writing, writing, writing, even the rocky heart of a disciple would be touched and you would not talk about typescripts and hibernation. I have given up (for the present at least) the attempt to minimise the cataract of correspondence; I accept my fate like Raman Maharshi with the plague of Prasads and admirers, but at least don't add anguish to annihilation by talking about typescripts.5
(5)Trying to persuade his eye!
NB: I am surprised and sad to hear that you can still be affected by these physical ailments!
Sri Aurobindo: What I am surprised at is that I have any eye left at all after the last two or three years of half-day and all night work. The difficulty for resting is that the sadhaks have begun pouring paper again without waiting for the withdrawal of the notice - not all, of course, but many. And there is a stack of outside correspondence still unanswered! I am persuading
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my eye, but it is still red and sulky and reproachful. Revolted, what? Thinks too much is imposed on it and no attention paid to its needs, desires, preferences etc. Will have to reason with it for a day or two longer.6
(6)Walking with giddiness:
NB: S seems to be all right. We can let him walk about a little. P asks me if his giddiness was due to congestion or some other cause.
Sri Aurobindo: I think he might walk about a little. Giddiness can come from many causes. I used to walk about for hours with my head going round or going up in a most exhilarating way. It gave me a perverse Ananda but did not inconvenience me otherwise. But S's case is not quite clear.7
(7)A big shout to Naik:
NB: I heard an interesting thing that you gave Naik a big shout! Ah, I wish I had heard it! But I thought you had lost your capacity to shout?
Sri Aurobindo: The supramental (even its tail) does not take away any capacity, but rather sublimates all and gives those that were not there. So I gave a sublimated supramental shout. I freely admit that (apart from the public platform) I have shouted only four or five times in my life.8
(8)Nothing to do with these elaborate idiocies:
NB: Doraiswamy is coming this Sunday, I hear. Shall I ask him? Or your I.C.S. knowledge would be help enough? I.C.S. people are supposed to be Gods, you know? knowing everything!
Sri Aurobindo: Good Lord, sir! I was a probationer only and had nothing to do with these elaborate idiocies. If I had been a practising civilian, I might have had to do it, but probably I wouldn't have done it and they would have chucked me out for insubordination and laziness.'
(9)NB: Is that the reason why you don't give any explanations either? Very well, Sir!
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Sri Aurobindo: Why should I explain when you can understand and explain yourself? As Christ came to save sinners, not the righteous, so am I here to explain the inexplicable to the non-understanding, not to the understanding!10
(10)NB: For this Yoga, one must have the heart of a lion, the mind of a Sri Aurobindo and the vital of a Napoleon.
Sri Aurobindo: Good Lord! Then I am off the list of the candidates - for I have neither the heart of a lion nor the vital of Napoleon.11
(11)NB: You have made them believe that medicines and doctors are no good, but at the same time could not infuse into them sufficient faith in you. Result - they have fallen between two stools!
Sri Aurobindo: Well, T and S used both to get cured without need of medicines once on a time. The later development has evidently come for your advantage, so that you may have elementary exercises in samata [equanimity]. I have had a lot of schooling in that way and graduated M.A. Your turn now.12
(12)King Charles's head seen everywhere!
NB: I noticed recently a very peculiar movement in me. I could no longer think of you - an absolute indifference, apathy was there. It seemed as if you were before me yet not there.
Sri Aurobindo: It looks like the subconscient - perhaps due to my writing about it? But also it may be that the subconscient has become my King Charles's head and I see it everywhere.13
(13)On mathematics!
NB: I have given you my time-table so that you may concentrate on me at the exact time. I hope the mathematical figures won't give you a shock!
Sri Aurobindo: No fear. Mathematics are more likely to send me to sleep than give a shock.14
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(14)Teaified cells!
NB: Lack of interest and energy, disinclination to go to hospital - this is my condition for the last few days. I took a cup of tea and the energy came back.
Sri Aurobindo: Sympathise with you. There was a time when I was like that. Teaified cells - instead of deified.15
(15)To release Sri Aurobindo into beatitude!
NB: You spoke of the supramental coming as fast as we will allow. If we fellows have to allow, you had better close down the shop and enjoy your supramental beatitude.
Sri Aurobindo: You have mistaken the sense altogether. It simply means if with the bother of your revolts, depressions, illnesses, shouts, quarrels and all the rest of it, I can get time to go on rapidly. Nothing more, sir.
[As regards your proposal,] I am quite ready. I propose that you call a meeting and put it to the vote "That hereby we resolve to release Sri Aurobindo into beatitude and all go off quietly to Abyssinia."16
II. On Nirodbaran
(1)NB: I have embraced your 'waiting on the Grace'. I'll now dance and prance. A little khichuri, alubhaja and a little harmless platonic love. Agreed? [Khichuri - A Bengali dish made up of pulses and rice. Alubhaja - Fried potato.]
Sri Aurobindo: I have no objection to alubhaja, but to the devil with your platonic love!17
(2)NB: Now I find that I am only a bundle of sex and nothing else! This is yogic transformation indeed!
Sri Aurobindo: Nobody can be only a bundle of sex. Even a cat or Casanova can't be that. It is the aboriginal coming up and figuring as if the whole man. But there are other bundles there even if this one is at the top for the moment.18
(3)NB: People say that I have no respect for you because I write anything and everything [to you]. "Sri Aurobindo is the Lord Supreme and with Him he plays all these pranks!"
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Sri Aurobindo: And I return the compliment - I mean reply without restraint, decorum or the right grave rhythm....19
(4)NB's photo: Crossing the Ass's Bridge!
NB: I send you a photograph of mine... What do you think of this snap - a Mussolini gone morbid? Anyhow, it looks as if you have at least succeeded in putting some intellect in this brain-box of mine!
Sri Aurobindo: Good heavens, what a gigantic forehead they have given you! The Himalaya and the Atlantic in one mighty brow! also, with the weird supramental light upon it! Well, well, you ought to be able to cross the Ass's Bridge with that. Or do you think the bridge will break down under its weight?20
(5)Joke with NB's name:
NB: About the poem, it is all my writing, Sir, and all rights reserved. These are glimpses of something turning up some day, even though the sky is cloudy now. Micawberism, par excellence!
Sri Aurobindo: Nirod Micawber (Talukdar no more). That is a good idea.
NB: Two poems by Nishikanta enclosed; one old and the other new.
Sri Aurobindo: All right, I think. Rereading it, I find it tres joli. Congratulations to myself and Nishikanta with Nirod Talukdar in the middle.
NB: I have no objection to being the trait-d'union in the 'mixed parentage', but for heaven's sake drop that appendage Talukdar, Sir. It is absolutely prosaic when I am trying to be poetic!
Sri Aurobindo: All right. Only it is a pity - it was such a mouthful! It may be prosaic in Bengali, but to one ignorant of the meaning it sounds as if you were a Roman emperor.21
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III. On this and that...
(1)The Mother is always present:
X: You have said: "Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present." ... In what sense is the Mother everywhere? Does the Mother know all happenings in the physical plane?
Sri Aurobindo: Including what Lloyd George had for breakfast today or what Roosevelt said to his wife about the servants? Why should the Mother 'know' in the human way all happenings in the physical plane? ... All knowledge is available in her universal self, but she brings forward only what is needed to be brought forward so that the working is done."22
(2)Grand First Supramental!
NB: People are saying that the Supramental has come down into the physical...
Sri Aurobindo: Into whose physical? I shall be very glad to know - for I myself have not got so far, otherwise I would not have a queasy eye. But if you know anybody who has got it (the supramental in the physical, not the eye) tell me like a shot. I will acclaim him "Grand First Supramental" at once.2'
(3)Doctors' prodding instruments to be turned into fountain-pens!
NB: I dreamt that the Mother was building a very big hospital in which I would be a functionary... Dream of a millennium in advance?
Sri Aurobindo: It would be more of a millennium if there were no need of a hospital at all and the doctors turned their injective prodding instruments into fountain-pens - provided of course they did not make misuse of the pens also.
NB: But why the deuce are those instruments to be replaced by fountain-pens? Want doctors to be poets or clerks? Or is it a hint to me to write more than prescribe?
Sri Aurobindo: I was simply adopting the saying of Isaiah the prophet, "the swords will be turned into ploughshares", but
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the doctor's instrument is not big enough for a ploughshare, so I substituted fountain-pens.24
(4)Ms. T putting Mr. K in her pocket!
NB: It seems a great pressure is being brought down and many disappearing, beginning with T and ending with K.
Sri Aurobindo: K has not disappeared. He has gone over there to enable D to come here during the vacation, for T would be otherwise alone there. He intends to come back - provided of course T does not capture him and put him in her pocket - if she has one.25
(5)Applied mathematics!
NB: Again about the novel-tangle. X told J in your name -"All she did with regard to her novel was because of egoism and her love of vital drama." J was very much upset by hearing it said in your name.
Sri Aurobindo: That is what you might call applied mathematics. I made a general statement which could cover the whole animal and human creation up to Mussolini and the Negus and avoided all mention of the novel....26
(6)Sri Aurobindo heading for the Pacific Ocean!
NB: In short, I am thinking of going out somewhere for a month. I can only think of A at Bombay who may be willing to keep me.
Sri Aurobindo: That is D's proposition all over again! I have to spend a large part of the night writing letters to him so that he may not start for Cape Comorin and the Himalayas -now if you pile Bombay and A on these two ends of India, I for my part shall have to head for the Pacific Ocean.27
(7)On gossip and calumny:
NB: I have again become the victim of people's tongue. I came to know that someone was imputing most abject motives to some of my actions, without my giving any cause of offence.
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Sri Aurobindo: Do you think people need a "cause" for criticising others? It is done for the heavenly Ananda of the thing in itself. Paraninda [criticism of others] is to the human vital sweeter than all the fruits of Paradise.
NB: Can you explain why these poisonous shafts of criticism are thrown at me, without any reason at all?
Sri Aurobindo: Imagination + inference + joy of the perspicacious psychologist + joy of fault-finding + several other vital joys + joy of communicating to others, usually called gossip. Quite enough to explain. No other reason wanted.28
(8)Unanimity in the communal mind:
NB: Excuse my writing today, since all days are Sundays for you it is all right, I suppose.
Sri Aurobindo: The whole Ashram seems to reason in the same way and to draw the farther consequence that the perpetual Sunday is the proper day for each writing his special letter to me! What a touching proof of unanimity and solidarity in the communal mind!2'
(9)The demon of correspondence:
NB: M
Sri Aurobindo: Sorry, have to postpone M's ghosdy troubles till tonight. Terrible night the last! (No, no - wasn't attacked by a pseudo
(10)The Avatar getting frightened!
NB: It may be a "comfortable doctrine" but that's my philosophy of sadhana. What is the good of the Avatar if we do everything by ourselves? We have come to you and taken shelter at your feet so that you may deliver us from all sins...
Sri Aurobindo: But what if the Avatar gets frightened at the prospect of all this hard labour and rushes back scared behind the veil?
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NB: After all what's the use of so much austere sadhana? The supramental is bound to come down and we shall lie flat at the gate and he can't pass us by?
Sri Aurobindo: Why not? Why can't he float easily over you and leave you lying down or send for the supramental police to chivy you out and make you pass through a hard examination in an Epicurean austerity before you are allowed inside?31
(11)Penal servitude for the Avatars!
NB: I should say that Avatars are like well-fitted, well-equipped Rolls Royce machines.
Sri Aurobindo: All sufficient to themselves - perfect and complete from the beginning, hey? Just roll, royce and ripple!
NB: ... the rest of humanity is either like loose and disjointed machines or wagons to be dragged along by Avatars and great spiritual personages....
Sri Aurobindo: Great Scott! What a penal servitude for the great personages and the Avatars! And where are they leading them? All that rubbish into Paradise? How is that any more possible than creating a capacity where there was none? If the disjointed machines cannot be jointed, isn't it more economical to leave them where they are in the lumber-shed?...32
(12)Common sense sent flying sky-high!
NB: The Overmind seems so distant from us, and your Himalayan austerity and grandeur takes my breath away, making my heart palpitate!
Sri Aurobindo: O rubbish! I am austere and grand, grim and stern! every blasted thing I never was! I groan in an un-Aurobindian despair when I hear such things. What has happened to the common sense of all of you people? In order to reach the Overmind it is not at all necessary to take leave of this simple but useful quality. Common sense by the way is not logic (which is the least commonsense-like thing in the world), it is simply looking at things as they are without inflation or deflation — not imagining wild imaginations — or for that matter
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despairing "I know not why" despairs."
(13)Rose-leaf princess sadhaks!
NB: S asked for meals at home . Because of the rainy weather he says he feels unwell.
Sri Aurobindo: What delicate people all are becoming!
NB: ... Suddenly to drop into an underground cell is, I don't know what.
Sri Aurobindo: Everybody drops. I have dropped myself thousands of times during the sadhana. What rose-leaf princess sadhaks you all are!"
(14)A kick or a push?
NB: Do you intend to give me a push or a kick this time at the Darshan, or just a touch as usual?
Sri Aurobindo: I think for that your vital has to make up your mind whether it is going to leave old moorings or not. Otherwise a kick will only give a gloom and glum and a push make it tumble down and say "O Lord! what a wash-out is life!"36
(15)Reached Nirvana so easily!
NB: Now an absolute blank, a perpetual vegetative unrest, a Nirvana!
Sri Aurobindo: Gracious heavens, you have reached Nirvana so easily! But how can unrest be Nirvana? Some misconception. Perhaps it is Prakritilaya [to be dissolved in unconscious Nature] you are aiming at! Perhaps you are moving towards a repetition of jada Bharat [Bharat the inert] and when you are sufficiently jada and able to enjoy it, the Nirvana and all the Knowledge will come to you.37
(16)On Fate and its components:
NB: I am tempted to ask you about the suicide of S's wife.
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You said something about Fate which is always a mysterious word.
Sri Aurobindo: Well, the determination of human life and events is a mysterious thing. Can't help that, you know. Fate is composed of many things - Cosmic Will + individual self-determination + play of forces -I- Karma -t-x + y + z-i-a + b + c ad infinitum.38
NB: Some say that the Divine's Way would have been to try to turn the wife also this way or to help
Sri Aurobindo: God only knows what God does and why he is doing it. And God is not in the habit of letting other people know - except when it suits him.3'
(17)Tut, tut, tut! Hang it all!
NB: I was feeling very happy, but the very next day a nebulous cloak of depression fell and I am still under it. Well!
Sri Aurobindo: Tut, tut, tut! You really must get rid of this kind of thing, hang it all Out of this kind of nebula no constellation can be made.40
(18)Misinterpreting the Mother's look:
NB: Today Mother said to me something during pranam — something more than "said". I searched in my mind, heart and body - what is it I have done!
Sri Aurobindo: She didn't: she only looked at you a little longer than usual.
NB: I can take any amount of thrashing with grace, even good grace, as you have had enough evidence by now, but to take it without knowing the why or how of it, goes a little too deep, Sir.
Sri Aurobindo: No thrashing at all - not even the natural yearning to thrash you.
NB: For an earthly reason I found that I have accepted an invitation for lunch. Is that then why Mother focussed her fury on my dread soul? Or is the reason unearthly?
Sri Aurobindo: Knew nothing about it.
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Never dreamed even of the lunch - was thinking of B.P. — not of any delinquency of yours.
NB: You can't say there was nothing... Sri Aurobindo
NB: I was positively conscious that there was something and I want to know it if only to rectify myself.
Sri Aurobindo: Only fancy, sir, dear delightless fancy. Nothing more deceiving than these pseudo-intuitions of Mother's displeasure and search for its non-existent reasons. Very often it comes from a guilty conscience or a feeling that one deserves a thrashing, so obviously a thrashing must be intended. Anything like that here?
NB: There you are then, Sir! You admit that Mother did look a little longer than usual — that's a point gained!
Sri Aurobindo: Just Jehovah, man! What of that? Can't Mother look longer without being 'furious'?
NB: Is it about that girl I wrote to you of long ago and got a smack?
Sri Aurobindo: Consider yourself smacked this time also.
NB: Nothing criminal or incriminating - still enough perhaps to make the heart throb. Even my fancy is only a fancy...
Sri Aurobindo: Fancy? fudge! It was only a movement of the hormones.
NB: A guilty conscience, a criminal conscience, well, that's about the size of it. Thrashing, fury I accept all if that was what it was for.
Sri Aurobindo: It was not. As there was no thrashing and no fury, it could not be for that.41
(19) Heat meets heat!
NB: [On April 26, 1935] Just now an outburst with Champaklal. I am sure he will tell you about it. I hate to trouble you with these trifles.
Sri Aurobindo: Champaklal does not usually tell Mother about these things - outbursts of that kind are too common with him. And when heat meets heat - It is almost midsummer now.42
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IV With interjections and exclamations
In his correspondence with his beloved disciple Nirodbaran, Sri Aurobindo freely used various swear-words and exclamatory expressions. They were as sweet as they were ingenious. And what a delicious humorous effect they created!
We cite below a few of these interjectional phrases which richly spiced his writings to NB.
(1)"Merciful heavens, what a splashing and floundering."43 (2)"The deuce! An Indian Guru? Well!"44 (3)"What the deuce is the meaning of 'lineage' here?... And what the greater deuce is 'liege'?"45 (4)"Good heavens! where did you get this idea that literature can transform people?"46 (5)"??? Great Heavens! which? who? But there is nothing new in that."47 (6)"N also!!! Great illogical heavens! Obviously if N becomes a supramental, everybody can!"48 (7)"Good Lord! you are not part of the world."49 "Good Lord! what a Falstaff of a fountain-pen!"30 (8)"O Lord God! again despair!"51 (9)"Glorious! You must begin glittering at once..."52 (10)"Gracious heavens! you are really a poet."53 (11)"Lord God in omnibus!"34 (12)"By Jove, yes!"55 (13)"Great Jehovah!"56 (14)"Wa Allah! It seems to me at the moment one of the finest poems you have yet written. Praise be!"57 (15)"By George! But that's a drastic remedy..."58 (16)"Jehoshaphat! What has the brain got to do with vomiting? Throwing up excess of Yogic knowledge?"59 (17)"Great Scott! What a happy dream!"60 "Great Scott, man! Poetry and no question of the ear?"61 (18)"Ahem! What do you say to that?"62 (19)NB: "X wants to meet the Mother in the vital!" Sri Aurobindo
(1)"Merciful heavens, what a splashing and floundering."43
(2)"The deuce! An Indian Guru? Well!"44
(3)"What the deuce is the meaning of 'lineage' here?... And what the greater deuce is 'liege'?"45
(4)"Good heavens! where did you get this idea that literature can transform people?"46
(5)"??? Great Heavens! which? who? But there is nothing new in that."47
(6)"N also!!! Great illogical heavens! Obviously if N becomes a supramental, everybody can!"48
(7)"Good Lord! you are not part of the world."49 "Good Lord! what a Falstaff of a fountain-pen!"30
(8)"O Lord God! again despair!"51
(9)"Glorious! You must begin glittering at once..."52
(10)"Gracious heavens! you are really a poet."53
(11)"Lord God in omnibus!"34
(12)"By Jove, yes!"55
(13)"Great Jehovah!"56
(14)"Wa Allah! It seems to me at the moment one of the finest poems you have yet written. Praise be!"57
(15)"By George! But that's a drastic remedy..."58
(16)"Jehoshaphat! What has the brain got to do with vomiting? Throwing up excess of Yogic knowledge?"59
(17)"Great Scott! What a happy dream!"60
"Great Scott, man! Poetry and no question of the ear?"61
(18)"Ahem! What do you say to that?"62
(19)NB: "X wants to meet the Mother in the vital!" Sri Aurobindo
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(20)"Great Jumble-Mumble! What has Vasudeva to do with it?"64 (21)"Great Muggins, man! What a mess you have made of my explanation!"65 (22)"Christ! And yet you attribute the sufferings of these people to the Supramental Force!"66 (23)"You say, work and realisation cannot go together? Hurrah for the Himalayas!67 (24)"But, man alive, what is the metre?"68 "Man alive, send them hopping off for good."69 (25)"Well but hang it all! If there is no 'why', then 'why' be unhappy?"70 (26)"Well, I am hanged! You can't know anything about anything before you have achieved it?"71 (27)NB: "We have heard that you have done tremendous feats of memory like Vivekananda." Sri Aurobindo: Hallo!72 (28)NB: The confusion and despair are because I don't seem to have any go at all. Sri Aurobindo: Pshaw! Pooh! Rubbish!75 (29)NB: R cures cancer in Sri Aurobindo: Hello! (30)"Whoosh! Anyhow, ... it doesn't seem to me there is any ground for any indulgence in this black luxury."75 (31)"Why the hell can't you always write like that?"76 (32)Sri Aurobindo: Karma Yoga is as old as the hills. What is this nonsense about its absolute newness? Donner Wetter] Tausend Teu/ell NB: Your German has become Greek to me, Sir! Sri Aurobindo: These are swearings in German. Donner Wetter (thundering weather) Tausend Teufel (thousand devils = French, Mille diables).11 (33)"Quite awfully fine. Gaudeamus igitur! [Let us therefore rejoice.]"78 (34)"Helas! Helas! Alas! Ototototoi!"79 (35)"Ah ha! Wah! wah!"80
(20)"Great Jumble-Mumble! What has Vasudeva to do with it?"64
(21)"Great Muggins, man! What a mess you have made of my explanation!"65
(22)"Christ! And yet you attribute the sufferings of these people to the Supramental Force!"66
(23)"You say, work and realisation cannot go together? Hurrah for the Himalayas!67
(24)"But, man alive, what is the metre?"68
"Man alive, send them hopping off for good."69
(25)"Well but hang it all! If there is no 'why', then 'why' be unhappy?"70
(26)"Well, I am hanged! You can't know anything about anything before you have achieved it?"71
(27)NB: "We have heard that you have done tremendous feats of memory like Vivekananda."
Sri Aurobindo: Hallo!72
(28)NB: The confusion and despair are because I don't seem to have any go at all.
Sri Aurobindo: Pshaw! Pooh! Rubbish!75
(29)NB: R cures cancer in
Sri Aurobindo: Hello!
(30)"Whoosh! Anyhow, ... it doesn't seem to me there is any ground for any indulgence in this black luxury."75
(31)"Why the hell can't you always write like that?"76
(32)Sri Aurobindo: Karma Yoga is as old as the hills. What is this nonsense about its absolute newness? Donner Wetter] Tausend Teu/ell
NB: Your German has become Greek to me, Sir!
Sri Aurobindo: These are swearings in German. Donner Wetter (thundering weather) Tausend Teufel (thousand devils = French, Mille diables).11
(33)"Quite awfully fine. Gaudeamus igitur! [Let us therefore rejoice.]"78
(34)"Helas! Helas! Alas! Ototototoi!"79
(35)"Ah ha! Wah! wah!"80
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REFERENCES
(36) "O dear me! Cherub! cherub!"81
N.B. For what the abbreviations stand for please consult Bibliography on page 439
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