Talks with Sri Aurobindo

14 JANUARY 1940

NIRODBARAN: Suresh Dev was Vishuddhananda's disciple, it seems.

SRI AUROBINDO: Then how could he say he didn't know what meditation was?

NIRODBARAN: That is what I asked Yogananda.

SRI AUROBINDO: I wondered how he could have had that experience he spoke of if he had not done meditation before.

NIRODBARAN: Perhaps he hadn't such a decisive experience as it seems.

SRI AUROBINDO: Is Vishuddhananda dead?

NIRODBARAN: Yes.

SATYENDRA: What were his methods?

NIRODBARAN: A book I read about him was full of the miracles he used to do.

SRI AUROBINDO: Is it he who is said to have brought out jewels from his body?

NIRODBARAN: Yes, he spoke of doing some experiment with the sun's rays and called it Suryavijnana (Solar Science).

PURANI: Yes, he seems to have started a laboratory to utilise the sun's rays for material and spiritual purposes, but the laboratory was not completed.

SRI AUROBINDO: Material purposes possible, but how spiritual?

PURANI: I don't know.

SRI AUROBINDO: If he wanted to remove some physical obstacles in the body that prevent the inner opening, that may be possible. Or was it by changing the secretion of the glands?

PURANI: The glands have now gone out of fashion, perhaps.

NIRODBARAN: No, they are still going strong. Plenty of researches are still being done.

SRI AUROBINDO: Possibly after some time they will also be quite antiquated.

PURANI: Yes, the researchers may even say the glands don't exist.

SRI AUROBINDO: When I began taking an interest in science, scientists used to believe in a material Monism and Determinism. Now they speak of Indeterminism, Pluralism and the Quantum Theory. Now they say electrons are the basis of Matter. One or two decades hence, they will find that electrons are no longer the basis.

PURANI(after a pause): I was looking through Father Heras' pamphlet on the Mohenjodaro script. He says that the sign looking somewhat like an open bracket stands for the Tamil kal and that the opposite sign stands for lak—and together they mean "union".

SRI AUROBINDO: If you set your mind to it, you can make up any theory.

EVENING

SRI AUROBINDO(beginning the talk): Have you seen the prophecy by a "Seeker of Truth" in today's paper? He says that Congress will come to power on 16th January. There will be peace in India and then peace in the world. The war will stop. He gives a definite date. He has the courage of his convictions.

NIRODBARAN: Peace in India will lead to peace in the world?

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, through Gandhi, I suppose, and perhaps Gandhi will be accepted as the saviour of the world!

SATYENDRA: There are only two days more. I asked a friend what had become of N. C. Vakil's horoscope.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes?

PURANI: He writes that Vakil is very busy with a very important thing, which is that his cat has fallen ill and then his wife and other relatives, and he has tried homeopathy on them all.

SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, his cat is the most important thing for him?

PURANI: His wife also is occupying his attention. She is worried because of the war. She is English. She is thinking of her relatives at home.

SRI AUROBINDO: He can then make a horoscope of the war and tell how the relatives will be affected by it.

NIRODBARAN: I was wondering how he could be so busy with a cat, but when Purani said he has an English wife it became clear to me.

SRI AUROBINDO: How? She belongs to the same species, you mean? (Laughter)

PURANI: I wrote back that now Vakil would have to make a horoscope for the reading of his horoscope.

SRI AUROBINDO: That is to say?

PURANI: Judging by the present circumstances, the stars have all changed. Everything is in a muddle.

After this Purani brought in again the issue of the Mohenjodaro script. Sri Aurobindo said that the linguistic scheme built up by the Roman Catholic father seemed to be a play of imagination.