Talks with Sri Aurobindo

16 OCTOBER 1940

Purani started the talk about one Mr. Chevalier, a friend of Dr. Ramchandra, who had arrived here. He seems to have said that Dr. Ramchandra was much changed. Satyendra and Champaklal corroborated the observation. But Purani said that he had heard also some things against Dr. Ramchandra —for instance, his gardening and gardening all the time! Then there was talk that both Suren and Dr. Ramchandra were much relieved because Suren had moved to a new house.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, Suren has been wanting to move for a long time, and Ramchandra said that it would be difficult to check his violence if Suren was not removed.

SATYENDRA: But I see much change in him now. Of course many things turn up here from our old nature. For instance, I find in myself things that I didn't suspect existed in me. That is, perhaps, due to some special working in the Inconscient at present.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, many people have said that to me. It is what the psychoanalysis put so much weight upon. They call it suppression and its later effect.

SATYENDRA: But everything is not suppression.

NIRODBARAN: You said before that the work was going on in the subconscient.

SRI AUROBINDO: It is the same; it is the rising up of the subconscient from the Inconscient.

NIRODBARAN: Has everybody such dark elements in the Inconscient?

SRI AUROBINDO: There is a possibility, though they may not be manifested in a formed state, etc.?

SATYENDRA: When the subconscient rises up, it seems there is no end to it. It keeps recurring. One doesn't know how to get rid of the cycle. It is something terrible.

SRI AUROBINDO: Mind and the vital are easy to change. It is these three, the physical, the subconscient and the Inconscient, that are most difficult.

EVENING

Gandhi has elaborated his campaign of Satyagraha and elected Mr. Vinoba Bhave as the candidate to start it.

PURANI: I read that Gandhi thought of making Vinoba Prime Minister in place of Kher.

SRI AUROBINDO: No, not Kher but Dr. Khare from Central Province.

PURANI: Good Lord! I would like to see how Vinoba would carry on even for a week.

SRI AUROBINDO: He would have advised fasting a week for purification.

Purani then gave a description of Vinoba. Gandhi has elaborated on his science of fasting, saying that it is a dangerous weapon and nobody should undertake one without being a master of its technique. Then he said that his Rajkot fast was a mistake.

SRI AUROBINDO: I thought it was inspired by God!

PURANI: Yes, but in its application he committed mistakes; for instance, he shouldn't have asked the Viceroy to intervene since he considered the Prince as his son. It seems he has selected Nehru as the second candidate after Bhave.

SRI AUROBINDO: Nehru is not scientific—an anticlimax!

NIRODBARAN: No news of Tagore!

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he is getting better. Something strange about him: when you think he is getting better, he suddenly begins to die and when you think he is dying he gets better. (Laughter)

PURANI: You have read about a Polish ship escaping from Dakar almost miraculously through a ring of submarines, warships, etc.?

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. That's the true Pole—you can't subjugate the race. By the way, have you marked the "damages and casualties" in Bombay from the cyclone?

PURANI: Yes.

SRI AUROBINDO: They are all speaking about it in terms of war as if there had been some air raid. (Laughter)