Sri Aurobindo : conversations
Talks with Sri Aurobindo is a thousand-page record of Sri Aurobindo's conversations with the disciples who attended to him during the last twelve years of his life. The talks are informal and open-ended, for the attendants were free to ask whatever questions came to mind. Sri Aurobindo speaks of his own life and work, of the Mother and the Ashram, of his path of Yoga and other paths, of India's social, cultural and spiritual life, of the country's struggle for political independence, of Hitler and the Second World War, of modern science, art and poetry, and of many other things that arose in the course of conversation. Serious discussion is balanced with light-hearted banter and humour. By recording these human touches, Nirodbaran has brought out the warm and intimate atmosphere of the talks.
THEME/S
NIRODBARAN: Dilip says he met a Turkish lady at Madras. She said England has not the ghost of a chance against Germany. "They won't fight at all, you will see," she said. "Don't live in a fool's paradise, Dilip." When Dilip asked whether Turkey would back Britain as she is her ally, she said, "That was before the fall of France. Now we have to save ourselves first."
SRI AUROBINDO: How?
NIRODBARAN: By alliance with Russia, perhaps.
SRI AUROBINDO: Then she is a fool herself. (Laughter)
NIRODBARAN: Russia is following a very secret method. Behind all these rumours and denials of an ultimatum to Turkey nobody knows the truth. It may be true as in Rumania's case.
SRI AUROBINDO: If Russia has demanded free passage through the Dardanelles it would be quite natural, for free passage is quite different from control, and the denial of it would be unnatural.
NIRODBARAN: H has paid back seven out of nine rupees.
SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, then his character must have changed.
PURANI: Is Satyendrastill with him?
NIRODBARAN: No.
SRI AUROBINDO: She refuses to be a party to his polygamous tendency and says that so long as this dancing girl is with him, she will have nothing to do with him.
PURANI: He is trying to start a school there for training young people and wants to give it the name of this dancing girl.
SRI AUROBINDO: Training in mutual borrowing? (Laughter)
PURANI: In Bombay also he got some money from the public for such a national school. When they came to know him they feared all the money—
SRI AUROBINDO: Would be nationalised? (Laughter)
EVENING
Purani was discussing art with Sri Aurobindo, apropos of Laurence Binyon's book.
PURANI: Binyon has not adequately dealt with Indian art here.
SRI AUROBINDO: Hasn't he done that in a separate book?
PURANI: Yes, with Mogul art. Coomaraswamy says that images were found in India even in the pre-Buddhistic period, before the Greek influence.
SRI AUROBINDO: What proof is there? It may be that they have shaken off the Greek influence and taken up a new line. Greek art had Egyptian influence, so why not Indian art?
PURANI: Gandhara art may be Greek.
SRI AUROBINDO: No, it is mixed. No scholar claims it to be pure Greek art.
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