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: You have said in your Synthesis of Yoga that all love and adoration is good—it is a preparation and aspiration, even partial realisation.
SRI AUROBINDO: Not for a Yogi.
NIRODBARAN: No, I mean in ordinary human life how can it be a preparation and aspiration?
SRI AUROBINDO: I meant true love, not vital love with desire and possessiveness, or physical love. That of course can't be—though Blake says the physical act of love is part of divine love or its fulfilment. If it is true love with a psychic or higher element in it, then it helps to awaken the Divine in oneself or bring a high uplifting of one's nature. I said there "love and adoration". Love, adoration and desire for union are the three features of that love.
NIRODBARAN: Sometimes even when there is a true spark, that gets lost afterwards by vital mixture, sometimes with disastrous consequences to the parties concerned.
SRI AUROBINDO: In so far as there is truth in the love, it will have its reward in the evolution of the being.
NIRODBARAN: If that love helps to turn one towards the Divine, can it be said it was an unconscious seeking for the Divine?
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, or it may be a seeking for love itself and its realisation or fulfilment.
NIRODBARAN: I have read a novel where the hero—an artist—has been depicted as unconsciously seeking for the Divine through human love but every fresh contact or relation seems to disillusion him because he finds jealously, pettiness, etc. coming in. Could it be said it was really a seeking or was it merely a vital play?
SRI AUROBINDO: Can't say, it depends on the particular psychological case. Which novel was it?
NIRODBARAN: J's, There the hero has been represented in that light and turned towards the Divine at the end.
SRI AUROBINDO: That's all mental.
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