Talks with Sri Aurobindo

10 MARCH 1940

PURANI: A Kashmiri Brahmachari has come for Darshan. He was lying near the gate at night. He seems to have done Rajayoga and had some experiences.

SATYENDRA: He seems to be a fine personality.

NIRODBARAN: Person or personality?

SATYENDRA: Personality—the physical.

SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, the physical?

SATYENDRA: I was more concerned about his belongings. Somebody could have taken them while he was sleeping outside the gate.

SRI AUROBINDO: You mean some of our innocent servants who don't know what they are doing? (Laughter)

PURANI: He says he has lost his peace and has come in search of it.

SRI AUROBINDO: For peace he can go to Ramana Maharshi. When people come here for peace I always ask them to go to him.

NIRODBARAN: Why? Can't they get peace here?

SATYENDRA: They may even lose whatever peace they have!

SRI AUROBINDO: They may get disturbed by the complex working here.

SATYENDRA: Here peace is not the main object. In the Mother's Conversations, the first thing she says is: "What do you want Yoga for? For peace? It is not enough." At the Maharshi's place it is different. People do get peace there because it is almost the main thing.

CHAMPAKLAL: One really can't get peace here if one wants it?

SRI AUROBINDO: It depends on the person. Europeans who come here get peace, they say. It is because they come with an agitated mind, I suppose.

DR. RAO: I am so glad, Sir, to see you sitting and writing. In August you will be able to give us blessings.

SRI AUROBINDO: I am giving them even now.

SATYENDRA: He is speaking of all the people, as in the past.

CHAMPAKLAL: There is no more chance for that.

SATYENDRA: Why? Why do you close the door like that? (Sri Aurobindo smiled.)

CHAMPAKLAL: How can it be possible with so many people? Even without an accident the blessings would have been stopped some day. The accident served as an excuse.

SRI AUROBINDO: Do you mean I broke my leg to stop the blessings? (Laughter)

CHAMPAKLAL: No, no, I don't mean that.

NIRODBARAN: It's like Dr. Becharlal's remark. He said that he had been aspiring and aspiring to hear you, to talk with you, and now with your accident he has been lucky.

SRI AUROBINDO: Dr. Manilal also wanted to hear my voice.

SATYENDRA: I too and everyone wanted that. We all hope that some day you will come out; everybody will hear you talk and see you.

SRI AUROBINDO: Supermind—that has to come first.

NIRODBARAN: But who knows—after Supermind comes you may busy yourself with something else.

SATYENDRA: The Mother also is gradually withdrawing. There is practically no physical contact.

SRI AUROBINDO(looking at Nirodbabaran): Wasn't it Dilip who said that after the withdrawal of the contact he was progressing more?

NIRODBARAN: Progressing? He seems to have said that the physical contact is not the main thing. At first he was very upset, then got accustomed perhaps.

SATYENDRA: One gradually gets accustomed to anything.

SRI AUROBINDO: Like getting accustomed to blackouts? (Laughter)

PURANI: In blackouts it is the blind men who are the most useful. Being accustomed to darkness they know all the ways and so they can lead the others.

SRI AUROBINDO: So it is a case of the blind leading not the blind but the seeing!

CHAMPAKLAL: I know a blind Sadhu who could recognise by the sound whether it was a one-anna piece or a two-anna one.

SATYENDRA: He acquired a money-sense.

SRI AUROBINDO: Was it the only sense he was aware of?

CHAMPAKLAL: By their footsteps he could know persons.

SRI AUROBINDO: Footsteps, of course. Everybody has his own peculiar way of walking.

SATYENDRA: There is a talk of the Darshan taking place in April now. People are asking us about it. If we say, "We don't know," they get angry and retort, "Oh, you are having Darshan every day and so you don't care." (Laughter)

SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know myself. Maybe. (Purani was signalling from behind to Nirodbaran that there would be Darshan.)

SATYENDRA: Purani knows.

SRI AUROBINDO: He does?

PURANI: There is a chance. The Mother perhaps doesn't want to say anything because many people may ask for permission.

SATYENDRA: If the sadhaks know, it's sure to leak out.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. Spreading news has become a yogic siddhi. (Laughter) Even before anything is decided it leaks out!

NIRODBARAN: We tell friends and say, "Don't tell it to anybody else." The friend repeats the same to his friend and everybody keeps his secret except from one friend.

SRI AUROBINDO: So it becomes a universal secret.

DR. RAO: The swelling of the leg is about the same as when I saw it last.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, that is because I am doing the exercises now. At one time it became almost normal like the other leg.

DR. RAO: Perhaps the circulation hasn't been fully established yet and that may also be the cause of deficient flexion to a certain extent.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes.

NIRODBARAN: What has circulation to do with flexion?

SRI AUROBINDO: It has something to do with it, because after the exercise I feel the joint getting stiff and feel there is no circulation

NIRODBARAN: That may be to a certain extent.

EVENING

PURANI: The Hindu has published a review by Varadachari of The Life Divine. Have you seen it? He seems to have reviewed it well.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, I was afraid they might send the book to X. Varadachari couldn't have said more within the space given him.

DR. BECHARLAL: Wouldn't X's review have been favourable?

SRI AUROBINDO: No. He is orthodox and not open to new ideas.

NIRODBARAN: A writes that K has sent you a request through Suren Ghose to save him.

SRI AUROBINDO: Save him? What is the matter?

NIRODBARAN: He means spiritually. Kazi Nazrul has also approached with the same request.

SRI AUROBINDO(smiling): When K was here he stayed a long time. He used to say, "The movement won't grow, won't grow." (Laughter)

NIRODBARAN: It seems his movement is still not growing.

SRI AUROBINDO: He has asked for permission to stay here. But the Mother hasn't approved.

PURANI: The Mother has given permission.

SRI AUROBINDO: Oh?

PURANI: For Darshan.

SRI AUROBINDO: No, he wanted to be a disciple. He was here during the mysterious stone-throwing without any apparent physical agency. He was very frightened and said that Barin and Upen didn't understand the seriousness of the matter.

PURANI: I remember his joke about a Tamil servant. He didn't know Tamil. A servant said, "Terima?" He replied, "What terima? I am tera baba."¹ (Laughter)

SRI AUROBINDO: He is a very humorous fellow.

NIRODBARAN: Is he Bengali?

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, his people have been settled in Bengal for a long time, like Motilal Roy's.

PURANI: Prithwi Singh and some others are also practically Bengali.

NIRODBARAN: But they don't follow Bengali customs. They speak Hindi at home.

PURANI: That is not Hindi, I can tell you.

SRI AUROBINDO: Then neither Hindi nor Bengali. One of their ladies wrote a letter to the Mother. It was a queer affair. People become Bengalis very easily. The Mahrattas whom I knew were practically Bengalis—except for their stubbornness.

(Addressing Purani after some talk on political subjects) Gandhi has declared that he is not going to be hustled into a struggle. The country is not yet ready. Some paper has remarked that if Gandhi won't launch the struggle before the country is ready according to his demands, then the country will never be ready. There is some truth in that.

PURANI: Yes, it is very difficult.

SRI AUROBINDO: Not very difficult—as good as impossible.