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
PURANI: Sisir Mitra was praising highly the style of the revised chapters of The Synthesis of Yoga. He asks when you will complete it.
SATYENDRA: Its completion should logically follow that of The Life Divine.
SRI AUROBINDO: I have to finish The Psychology of Social Development and The Ideal of Human Unity. Herbert showed the former to his friends. They said it would have a very good sale in Europe if translated. But the danger is that it might be translated in a rather rigid style.
NIRODBARAN: I hear the Mother's French style is very fine.
SRI AUROBINDO: Of course. And it is also very clear. Haven't you seen it in the Conversations?
NIRODBARAN: I know too little French to judge.
SRI AUROBINDO: French style is always clear. It is very difficult to translate The Life Divine into French.
PURANI: The Life Divine will be difficult to translate into any language.
SRI AUROBINDO: Except German. German is the language for philosophy.
SATYENDRA: How?
SRI AUROBINDO: It is hard and abstract.
NIRODBARAN: Kant's language!
PURANI: The Future Poetry also may sell well in England and America.
SRI AUROBINDO: Not in England. There the age of modernism is on, and my stand is quite different.
PURANI: Amiya Chakravarti also praised the style of The Life Divine.
NIRODBARAN: Dilip finds the second volume finer than the first. He sees the proofs with Sisir and says to him, "Wait, wait. Let me quote this." (Laughter) Amiya said to Sisir, "We want something new. Has Sri Aurobindo written anything recently?" Sisir asked, "Have you read The Life Divine?" Amiya replied, "No." So Sisir said, "Then it is new for you." (Laughter)
SATYENDRA: Has he got it?
NIRODBARAN: He has bought a copy.
SATYENDRA: No, I mean: has he got the divine life?
SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, you mean that?
SATYENDRA: Do you have to change much in the Psychology?
SRI AUROBINDO: No—only adding a passage here and there, and one or two new chapters at the end. The Ideal I have to recast because of Hitler. He has brought new problems.
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