Talks by Nirodbaran

16 July 1969

Nowhere shalt thou escape my living eyes." [This quotation was put up on the blackboard.] The line is from Savitri.⁸⁸ It has the flavour of that epic. Whoever may have picked it, I must thank him or her. It is very apt, very appropriate, and very true indeed, as some of you at least must have felt, in your own experiences. I've given you in my way a few instances showing the truth of this line from Savitri - His "living eyes" are all the time with you and I could give you many more examples of this truth. Perhaps, from time to time, I might, but I have already shown you enough of my feelings. So this proves that they are "living eyes" and you cannot escape, you can't. Whether you see them or not, they are with you, I can assure you that much today. I think I couldn't have done it some years ago, but today I can assure you that the "eyes" are there with you, only you have to be a little more indrawn in order to be able to perceive them. Day in and day out, I have undergone that experience, in areas which are mostly

87Maya is the power of illusion, ignorance and delusion.

88SABCL, Book 2, Canto 1, 29: 699.

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private and confidential, therefore I can't speak to you about it, but from the small instances I have given you, it is enough to show how living these "eyes" are. You can't hide anything from them, they know but don't tell you; yet sometimes they do!

Today ... Let me consult my green book ... to see what I have on the cards. My memory is short, it betrays me; therefore I have to keep a little bit of a record to refresh my memory. Yes, last week, you remember, I read out to you a talk by Mother, on Japan. Showering high praise on the Japanese for their love of beauty, which you have seen already many times on the cinema screen, She came to the subject of their moral life which, She said, if you remember, is guided very strictly and rigidly by moral codes. There is hardly any spirituality in that beautiful land, and She gave a very striking example: how She awoke the psychic being in a friend of hers, but then he regretted that he could not obey the command of that psychic being because he was morally bound to his emperor. He would betray the emperor if he obeyed the inner voice. So that shows the distinction between the moral law and the spiritual law. He wasted a great chance that the Mother had granted him. As you know very well, we are trying hard to awaken in us the psychic being, which, as per the Katha Upanishad, is "no bigger than this thumb"⁸⁹, but very well hidden deep inside our being, very secret. For years and years, we have been pining for it. Well, we don't get it easily, and this gentleman got it and lost it. There you are. One should never waste opportunities when one gets them without even asking for them.

You remember a similar instance I recounted to you here in the class. Sri Aurobindo told us how he gave the experience of the silent Mind to an idiot, and that idiot lost it - naturally. So we are all idiots in some ways, we often don't know the value of things; only when they go away, then some of us are conscious about what we have lost. I will raise this point a little later. The distinction between spirituality and morality, they are not the same thing - some of you know it very well. Now I will read out to you some talk we had with Sri Aurobindo

89 Katha Upanishad, II/l, shlokas 12 and 13. SABCL, 12: 256.

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on this subject of Japan. Very interesting, and the comments are somewhat similar to Mother's. Yes, I start from the relevant portion [Readingfrom Talks with Sri Aurobindo, 45]:

Japan, at one time, had an ideal. The power of the Japanese for self-sacrifice, patriotism, self-abnegation and silence were remarkable. They would never lose their temper in front of anybody, though perhaps they might stab afterwards. They could work so silently and secretly that no one knew anything before the Russo-Japanese War broke out. All on a sudden it broke out. The Japanese are kshatriyas, samurais, and their aesthetic sense is of course well known. But European influence has spoiled all that, and see now how brutal they have become, a thoroughly un-Japanese thing. Formerly they could look upon their opponents with sympathy. Look now at Japanese sentries boxing European officers. Not that the latter don't deserve it. Look also at the Japanese commander challenging Chiang Kai-shek to come out into the open field. This sort of bragging is not at all truly Japanese.

[Reading from Talks with Sri Aurobindo, 296]:

In the war between Russia and Japan, the Japanese admitted that the Russian artillery was remarkable; it didn't miss its mark, but the infantry was not so good; for, when they got a good opportunity they failed to take advantage of it. On the other hand, the Japanese army is perhaps the best in the world. In spite of overwhelming numbers against them in China, they have been able to conquer. Chiang Kai-shek had trumpeted that he would defeat the Japanese in a very short time. They didn't give any reply, but at the end of each defeat we find that they had advanced farther into China.

[Reading from Talks with Sri Aurobindo, 241-2]

Disciple: They say the Japanese are not good in the air. They missed their targets many times.

Sri Aurobindo: I don't know about that. The Japanese are good at concentrating on one thing at a time, but aeronautics requires concentration on many points at once ...

I was thinking about how some races have the sense of beauty in their very bones. Judging from what is left to us, it seems that all people had once a keen perception of beauty. For example, take pottery or Indian woodcarving, which, I am afraid, is dying out now. Greece and ancient Italy had a wonderful sense of beauty.

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Japan, you know, is remarkable. Even the poorest people there have that sense. If the Japanese produce anything ugly, they export it to other countries! But I am afraid they are losing their aesthetic sense because of the general vulgarization. By the way, the Chinese and the Japanese got some of their art impulse originally from India. Their Buddhist images have Indian inspiration. It is only later that they developed their own lines.

So here was some further information about what Japan was, and what Japan is; and I don't know what Japan will be in future; but, I think, speaking from a few of my experiences, that this is a good sign because you must break your strict moral rules in order to be spiritual, and they are passing through this change, this transition. That is my way of looking at things, my personal opinion. Anyhow, this is what Japan is.

Now a few points about the difference between spirituality and morality. I'll give some examples only as I am not an expert on philosophy. Had Buddha adhered to moral rules, he could not have left the world, because moral rules will bind you to the laws of society. He would have had to be King, and look after his wife and children and his subjects. That would be moral. So is the case, I suppose, with Sri Aurobindo. He could not have left his family; neither could I have. I could not have left my poor old mother behind, and it doesn't concern you so much because you have been brought here by your own parents. So that is moral law. When you belong to society, you have to obey the rules of the society. If your parents have brought you up, fed you and bred you and married you off, for good or for ill, you have to obey those rules. This is moral law. You can break the moral laws only when you have another call from above - the spiritual. Responding to this higher call, Buddha left the world, for the good of the world, and Sri Aurobindo left the world for the sake of a greater world. Moral laws can be ignored only when the spiritual call is there, not otherwise.

So this is the call of the spirit! The call of the spirit does not obey this moral law because it is a higher law; it is the law of God, whereas the moral laws are the laws of man. This is, in a nutshell, the distinction

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between the two. So the Japanese and those who are strictly moral, I'm afraid they don't, or very rarely, hear the voice of God, because they have adhered, all along in their life, to Procrustean laws and rules where there's no chance of the tiny whispering voice within being heard. So in order to be able to lead the spiritual life, you have to break some of the moral rules - the moral barriers. But so long as you don't hear that voice, you have to obey the moral law. In our land here, you see, we have become spiritual. Moral laws are not for us brothers. The first thing we have established in our spiritual life is freedom.

Now the word "brother" reminds me of a joke. I've fallen into this joking mood! This joke was told to us by no less a person than Sri Aurobindo himself, therefore please listen. It is not this profaner who is speaking. One day, in our "talks", we told Him, "There are so many bothers in the Ashram: servant bother..." (it was there then too; today it's getting worse). "Somebody said to me doctor-bother - because I was a doctor at that time - then engineer bother, so many bothers in the Ashram." Then Sri Aurobindo said, smiling, "Yes, bothers are our brothers!" He waited for a while; there was a hint which we could not catch. He said, "Don't you know the story?" We said, "No," then He started telling, looking down like this (very rarely did He look up; He would always be looking down, with a half-parted smile, impersonal, like a statue talking, and we would be listening). He said, "It was at the beginning of the Ashram. There were a few, just a handful of inmates. Pavitra had joined the Ashram recently. So these few inmates were talking together round the table. Pavitra-da approached them and said, "Gentlemen, I'm your brother." He had arrived recently and did not know English well, so I don't know how he pronounced 'brother' in his French accent: perhaps as 'borrther'. These people took the word to be 'bother'. Then they protested violently: "No, no, no, you are not a bother." [Laughter) The more they protested, the more Pavitra-da insisted, "No, no, no, I'm your bother." (Laughter) So this thing went on; that's why Sri Aurobindo said "bothers are our brothers". There used to be quite a lot of fun of that sort here; well, we enjoyed with Him and treated Him as one of our own. That fun

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is gone now. During such hilarious moods, Mother used to come in slowly; then, you understand, as soon as we heard Her step, all of us became good boys, no mischief at all. Even Sri Aurobindo Himself -ah ... ah ... a! All goody-goody," Gopal bodo shubodh balok."⁹⁰

There is another joke of Pavitra-da. I've heard it from my friend Amal, but you must take it with a pinch of salt. Pavitra-da used to, at the beginning, it seems, do some carpentry work, and Amal was in charge of the Furniture department. Pavitra-da prepared some blocks, and after preparing them, he took them to Amal and said, "You see I have prepared these blockheads (Laughter) to understand my table."⁹¹ (Laughter) You see what a compact expression: he said so many things in one single word! But don't you think that we Indians have a better pronunciation and command of the English language - we are no better. I gave you long, long ago an example cited by Sri Aurobindo Himself in one of the Majlis⁹² meetings. A Punjabi said, "We are all liars." What he meant was "lawyers." Sri Aurobindo said, "What a profound truth he had uttered!" (Laughter)

Then another humorous instance is a reflection on me. I was a student of Class 8. I think many of you here are better than me, being students of the International Centre. As a student of history, my history teacher asked me to read a passage in which there was a French word. Mind you I was a student in one of the very distant and provincial schools. I had no idea of what French was. The teacher asked me to read the passage. I was reading it, everything in English, so I said "Rendaze vooze." The teacher asked, "What?" I said, "Rendaze vooze." He smiled and said, "No, ron-day-voo." So I cursed the French language! Why should you introduce all these words into any other tongue? There is no necessity for it. I came to love this word when I came to read Sri Aurobindo's "Pilgrim of the Night": "I made an

90Bengali saying: "Gopa! is a very good boy."

91Translated badly from the French:des blocs pour soutenir la table.'

92The Indian Majlis was an Indian association in London when Sri Aurobindo was a student there. Situations and subjects relevant to India were discussed there, and young Sri Aurobindo learnt of the ill-treatment of Indians by the British back home and then resolved to work for India's liberation.

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assignation with the Night; in the abyss was fixed our rendezvous." If you want to use that word you must use it in this way, not in history or geography. So there you are! All of us make these faux pas. Somebody will laugh at our cost, but they won't laugh long, they are caught in a similar faux pas one day or another. Anyhow, so this is what it was.

Now I read out a passage to you by the Mother, which she gave to somebody:

There is only one country in the world that knows that there is only one Truth to which everything should be turned, and that is India. Other countries have forgotten this, but in India it is ingrained in the people and one day it will come. We must all recognize this and work for this. India is the cradle of the Truth and will lead the world to the Truth. India will find its real place in the world when it realises this.

Mother was talking, I believe, to some people who had gone to see Her, a gathering of men and women (again I have to make the distinction, can't help it, but it is formal). Mother hopes that:

Men present would not be offended that it is only the women who know how to use this power which comes from serving the Truth.

Please write it down and remember it [He reads out the last sentence again].

Now a friend has given me this book. There's something very fine about prayer. I shall read out to you a story entitled "Prayers Have Wings" from Tales of India by Daulat Panday:

Once upon a time, two angels flew down from Heaven, to settle on the topmost branch of a tall pine tree in Kailas. It was a beautiful moonlit night, and all around among the snow-covered hills and valleys there reigned a silvery peace and silence. The angels looked around and saw that every now and then wings flapped in the still mountain air, and vanished Heavenwards.

"Who could these winged creatures be? And where could they be going?" asked one angel of another. "They are the prayers of human beings living on earth, and they are flying upwards to reach the throne of the great God Brahman, the Creator of the Universe," replied the othet.

"Have you noticed how pretty some of them are?" asked the

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first angel.

"Yes, but most of them are quite ordinary, and a few seem to be positively ugly," replied the second. "Let us follow them and see where they are going." So saying, they both spread their wings and flew up towards the fleecy clouds overhead. Higher and higher they flew, and as they soared upwards, they found that many of the winged creatures that were dark and ugly could not go beyond the clouds, and fell back to earth and died. For these were the prayers of selfish, greedy people who prayed for their own good, even at the cost of others. Other prayers, less ugly, but still not good enough to attain any height, pierced the clouds and melted in the rarer atmosphere above, like mist in the morning light. Whereas those sincere prayers that had come straight from the hearts of good and kind people, soared higher and higher, beyond the moon, and even beyond the farthest star.

When the angels had reached the gates of Heaven, they found a beautiful creature with translucent wings that shone like so many opals, waiting there. As they passed near it, they saw its face which was like an innocent child's, so frank and pure that they could not doubt that it had come from a simple and honest heart.

The angels entered the gates of Heaven and passed into the hall where they found several beautiful creatures, but none to compare with the one they had just seen. They went together to the throne-room where they saw that these creatures conveyed their messages to the great God Brahman, and returned to the hearts that had sent them.

First came a pearly-winged prayer who bowed low and said, "Oh great Lord, I pray that there may be plenty in my land so that even the poorest may have enough." And to this the Lord Brahman replied, "So may it be!" And the prayer backed away in silence whilst another took its place.

This one prayed for wisdom and courage, for it had come from the mighty heart of a warrior, and it too was soon granted. Many others followed, but none of them were half as beautiful as the one the angels had seen at the gates. And just as they were wondering what had happened to it, the whole place was filled with a sweet fragrance, and soft strains of music commenced to fall upon their ears. The angels turned round to see from where these were coming, and lo! there stood the very one they had been thinking about. More lovely and opalescent than ever.

Bowing low before the throne of Brahman, it said in a humble

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voice, "Oh Lord of all Creation, accept my deepest gratitude for the countless blessings that Thou has bestowed upon me." Brahman was so pleased with this prayer that all Heaven overflowed with joy. The sun rose in all its glory, and rainbows danced in the heavenly skies.

"This prayer must have come from the heart of a King, or at least from a very wealthy man, for he could not be in want of anything. Otherwise he could not send up such a prayer," said the second angel to the first. "Let us follow in its wake and see where it goes."

Thus both the angels followed it, and to their utmost surprise, they found that the beautiful creature led them to the hut of a poor beggar boy who was sleeping on the floor, and quickly entered his heart. Soon after this, the boy woke up and smiled.

"I would like to test him and find out how he managed to send up such a prayer" said the first angel to the second. "So let us assume the shape of two weary travellers and go and speak to him." Thus they changed themselves into two travellers who looked very tired and hungry and knocked at the door. The little boy came out and received them with courtesy, and offered them all the fruits and nuts that he had collected after many days of toil. And when they expressed pity for his miserable condition, the boy only smiled and said, "I have much to be grateful for, kind sirs, for look at the sun which warms me the whole day long, and the birds that sing for me. There is also the music of rushing waters to soothe my ears, and the gentle winds to fan me to sleep. Even the King does not have more. And I am truly grateful for all these and so many more joys that the kind Lord has granted to me."

The angels looked at each other with surprise, and blessing the boy over and over again, they took their leave. Once they were out of his sight they changed their forms again and flew back to Heaven to tell this story.

***

You know perhaps that I have a nephew, Bibhash, who was a fledging and has now flown away! Well, he used to stay with me in my room in the Ashram. I saw that he used to come home very late at night, falling asleep here and there, and was getting out of control. So I reported to the Mother saying, "Mother, he doesn't come in time or doesn't turn up at all. What shall I do ?" Calmly, She replied, "Doesn't matter, he comes to me at least." So I left the matter there. But he became more and more unruly, and one day I gave him a slap. I felt very bad

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and somewhat in a frightened manner, next morning I told Mother, "I couldn't control myself and I beat him," and, immediately, She said, "Yes, because you beat him, he is unruly." SabbaashP!⁹³ Because he was unruly I beat him, and here were the tables turned on me!

Once, when Mother was a child, She saw that Her mother used to beat Her brother; so one day, when She could not stand it any more, She said, "If you beat him any more, I shall leave this house for good." From that day on, Her mother never beat him. See the Kali aspect in Her even as a little child!