Talks by Nirodbaran

Publisher's Note

When Nirodbaran came to Sri Aurobindo Ashram, after completing his medical studies in UK, to practise integral yoga, he was surprised to find that poetry was one of the vocations taken up by some disciples as a means of sadhana. Sri Aurobindo encouraged and even inspired them in their efforts through suggestions for improvement and guidance in the art of poetics. Helped by Sri Aurobindo's active interest, Nirodbaran began writing poetry and indulged in "eccentric innovations" without knowing anything about English metrical forms. Writing in a mystic-surrealistic vein, his poems gradually progressed towards "overhead poetry". After guiding him continuously in his poetic efforts, Sri Aurobindo declared one day that the poet was born!

The genesis of this book came about in this manner: Somewhere around 1968-69, a teacher had the bright idea of asking Nirod-da to speak to the students of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education about Sri Aurobindo. It was deemed that his talks would help prepare the students for Sri Aurobindo's birth-centenary. Nirod-da had been in close personal contact with Sri Aurobindo for twelve years. Before that, he had a voluminous correspondence with Sri Aurobindo for five years. It was for these reasons that the students were eager to hear him speak about Sri Aurobindo. Nirod-da agreed and he spoke to the students every Wednesday from 10:40 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Very soon, word went round that Nirod-da's talks about Sri Aurobindo were very interesting and elevating, and the class started to grow. The audience swelled, and soon the venue had to be shifted to the 'Hall of Harmony' so that all who wanted to attend could do so.

Someone suggested that the talks should be recorded because they often contained fresh information about Sri Aurobindo, hitherto unknown to many. Since there was only a single cassette, it was used for recording the talk in every class, and then, after transcription, the same cassette would be used for the next class. Nirod-da delivered, on

the whole, around 150 talks, all of which were patiently recorded and transcribed by Sudha and Kokila. Nirod-da's well-known book Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo was written from the notes taken during these talks. Even before the writing of the book was completed, Nirod-da started reading it out to the Mother, who would listen to it with great interest about four times a week. She herself wrote a small piece for the book, which said: "Thanks to Nirod, we have the revelation of an altogether unknown side of what Sri Aurobindo was. It is extremely interesting and very instructive."

When Nirod-da completed all he had to say about Sri Aurobindo, he continued the classes and he spoke about his correspondence with Sri Aurobindo, quoting profusely from the letters he had received from the Master. He also spoke about the other sadhaks in the Ashram as well as his own experiences. But the focus of his talks was always Sri Aurobindo.

Helios Books is very glad to publish these talks, not only because of the light they throw on some of the lesser known facets of Sri Aurobindo, but also because they reveal the inimitable humour of both Sri Aurobindo and Nirodbaran and their special relationship that we are privileged to witness. We thank the editors, Ranganath R. and Sudha, for their painstaking work in preparing this book.