Talks with Sri Aurobindo

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.

SRI AUROBINDO: Me? But I have no eminent disciple!

PURANI: What about Sir Akbar Hydari?

SRI AUROBINDO: He is not exactly a disciple.

SATYENDRA: Perhaps Brunton himself is a disciple eminent enough?

PURANI: He also says that he is not after money. The proof he gives is that if he were, he would not be contradicting his own past statements, as he is doing, and thereby risking his popularity.

SRI AUROBINDO: Are people complaining that he is contradicting himself for the sake of money?

PURANI: Yes. But he is contradicting himself, he says, for the sake of Truth.

SATYENDRA: The trouble is that he has started being a teacher before being sufficiently a student of Yoga.

PURANI: Wasn't he giving directions to people from the beginning?

SRI AUROBINDO: He has formed a group of his own, I believe.

PURANI: He doesn't accept the theory of World-Illusion. He says it is a theory difficult to practise in life.

SRI AUROBINDO: Practise in life? Nobody practises it. No Illusionist ever does.

PURANI: What Brunton means is that he cannot carry out in life the theory of Illusion.

SRI AUROBINDO: He means to accept of life only as much as is needed for the body?

SATYENDRA: He has spoken of an Egyptian stranger who talked to him in an Oxford accent and even knew his name. Hansraj also has written a book where another such instance is given. When he went to the Himalayas he met a Sannyasi who at once addressed him by his name and then spoke in Marathi fluently although he wasn't a Maratha. What surprised Hansraj was that he soon began to speak in English. How did he know that Hansraj knew English?

SRI AUROBINDO: If he knew Hansraj's name, it was not difficult to know other things.

SATYENDRA: Yes. That didn't strike me.

EVENING

SATYENDRA: The 13th seems to be an important date because Mars and Saturn are coming very close together on that day. Already they are pretty close. Astrologers fear some catastrophic destruction on that occasion, a great upheaval. But Jupiter and Venus are coming together on the 21st counteract Mars and Saturn.

NIRODBARAN: How can they counteract after the upheaval has taken place.

SRI AUROBINDO: After the upheaval, there will be a deheaval? (Laughter)

NIRODBARAN: Meennakshi's comment was, "See the goodness of God!"

SATYENDRA: I replied "If God is so good, why has He planned the destruction at all?"

SRI AUROBINDO: In order that you may appreciate His goodness: (Laughter)

NIRODBARAN(to Satyendra): Did you say on the 21st?

SATYENDRA: Yes

NIRODBARAN: On 21st February it can only be my long expected Supramental Descent. (Sri Aurobindo smiled.)

SATYENDRA: N is not satisfied with anything less.

NIRODBARAN: Mars and Saturn must be Hitler.

SRI AUROBINDO: And Stalin? By the way, the author of that book, Inside Europe, seems pro-Stalin. He says that Stalin is almost ideal except for a touch of blood thirstiness.

NIRODBARAN: What will he say now?

SATYENDRA: He will say that the principles are all right. The man who practises them may turn bad.

NIRODBARAN: Nehru has been disillusioned. But Bose, it seems, is supporting Russia against the Finns.