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
Very little talk these days.
PURANI: Hyderabad wants to be an independent sovereign state after the war and has asked the British to withdraw their forces and treat it as an equal. It says that if India gets Dominion Status, Hyderabad should become an independent sovereign state.
SRI AUROBINDO: An independent dominion within a dominion?
PURANI: No, an independent state altogether.
SRI AUROBINDO: Why does Hyderabad wait for the war? It can do that now.
PURANI: Yarjung Bahadur with his assembly is the leader.
SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, him? It's an assembly of idiots! But what will happen is that the Nizam will be the first to be kicked out. He knows it very well.
PURANI: He claims that Hyderabad has always been independent. But in fact in five battles with the Mahrattas, it was utterly defeated; not a single battle went in its favour. Yarjung says that the Nizam is contributing so much to the war fund, so he must be treated as an ally, equal in status.
SRI AUROBINDO: It is not the Nizam who is contributing but Sir Akbar who is forcing him to contribute. Otherwise the Government knows very well what the Nizam's views are.
PURANI: Sir Akbar will be coming here now.
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes.
NIRODBARAN: Nripen Sarcar is coming too. So they will meet.
PURANI: It seems Sarcar has suddenly turned religious. He has employed Sanskrit pundits and is learning Sanskrit.
SRI AUROBINDO: I see? Preparing himself for the other world. Whatever he has had to achieve he has done in this world and is now doing things for the next? (Laughter)
NIRODBARAN: Charu Dutt seems to have persuaded him to come here and also to buy a house to stay here for some time.
SRI AUROBINDO: Buy a house? Queer ideal! Wants to do Yoga?
NIRODBARAN: Probably.
PURANI: He has spoken somewhere in the South against Hitler and the Nazis and, quoting from Mein Kamf, says that Hitler considers us "chattels and slaves". In a Nazi victory our lot will be like that.
SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so. That is the well-known Nazi position on the coloured races. Pétain is now taking it up in France.
PURANI: Yes, he has already started against the Jews.
SRI AUROBINDO: He is also preventing coloured people from entering the Government service.
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