Talks with Sri Aurobindo

16 JANUARY 1940

PURANI: Vakil has written a letter.

SRI AUROBINDO: What does he say?

PURANI: He was for a long time suffering from boils, he says. After homeopathy had failed, he went to a surgeon who cured him. Other troubles too were there.

SRI AUROBINDO: I hope it is not the result of meddling with my horoscope, like Manilal who meddled with my knee. (Laughter)

PURANI: I read in Kalyan that somebody has conquered death.

SRI AUROBINDO: Conquered death? How?

PURANI: He knew exactly when he was going to die and he died at the very date and hour. How is that a conquest of death, I wonder.

SRI AUROBINDO: That is knowing the date of death, not conquest.

PURANI: They write that he was, according to his own calculation, to die on a certain day but it was found that that day was inauspicious, so he postponed his death to a few days later and on that day he died. So they say he conquered death.

SRI AUROBINDO: Conquest of death is prolongation of life, not the knowing of the date of death. That many people know. Kasherao Jadhav's father died according to the exact date and moment predicted by an astrologer.

PURANI: Dayananda Saraswati also had control over his death. He was poisoned by his cook at the instigation of a Maharaja's concubine. Dayananda was the Guru of this Maharaja and he rebuked the Maharaja for his passion and his running after women. So this concubine was enraged and tried to poison him. He was poisoned many times before this but somehow he knew in time and used to vomit out the poison. But this time he was off his guard. The doctor examined his blood and said that it was humanly impossible for anyone to be alive with such a big quantity of poison in his blood. But Dayananda controlled his whole system. What happened after some days was that eruptions came out all over his body and he died as a result. He came to know about the cook and asked him to leave the place. Otherwise he would have been caught and punished.

SRI AUROBINDO: Sakaria Swami also had Yogic control. One day he saw a mad dog coming towards him. He held out his hand for the dog to bite. After the bite he didn't allow the poison go into the system but localised it. When the Surat Congress was over, he got exited and thus lost control and the poison spread in his body. He got hydrophobia and couldn't drink water. He said "What is this nonsense? I, who was a trooper in the Mutiny and drank water from the puddles, can't drink water?" He drank water and died.

SATYENDRA: Could he exercise that control in sleep also?

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, Barin knew him. At one time he was his disciple.

SATYENDRA: Yes, Barin has written about him.

SRI AUROBINDO: Bejoy Goswmi also was poisoned by sannyasins but by the process called stambhan he controlled the effect, they say.

SATYENDRA: Barin speaks of Lele also. He recounts how Lele warned him against terrorism.

SRI AUROBINDO: Doesn't he speak of the ditch? And do you know the story of how he was asked to cut his tongue loose from the lower palate?

PURANI: They do that in Khechari Mudra.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he simply refused. They said, "You Bengali coward!" He replied, "Bengali or no Bengali, I am not doing it." (Laughter)

PURANI: But this Mudra is very dangerous unless one's vital being is pure.

SRI AUROBINDO: I am afraid Barin's wasn't quite pure! (Laughter)

PURANI: (After some time): To go back to X and Z: X said to Z that he could remain without company, etc., like Z. This is rather a compliment to Z.

NIRODBARAN: It seems people from outside are at once impressed by Z but not by Y. Only after they have had a talk with him they are much impressed.

SRI AUROBINDO: That is partly due to appearance. Z has an impressive appearance. Y has a wide and subtle mind. (After a while) He has remarkable mind-original.