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: I had a letter from Nolini Sen. He speaks of visions of flowers and wants to know their significance.
SRI AUROBINDO: What flowers?
NIRODBARAN: A pink lotus closed and then opened by some invisible power. He asks if it is your Force.
SRI AUROBINDO: You can write the significance.
NIRODBARAN: But he wants the implications too.
SRI AUROBINDO: The lotus would mean that the consciousness of the Divine is opening in him.
NIRODBARAN: He calls it your Force because we know the pink lotus to be your flower and the white to be the Mother's.
SRI AUROBINDO: Where does he see the lotus?
NIRODBARAN: I think in the heart.
SRI AUROBINDO: Then it is very good. It means his psychic being is opening.
NIRODBARAN: Maybe, but seeing visions like that is not of much importance, is it?
SRI AUROBINDO: There is more to it than that. He hears voices and gets inner guidance.
NIRODBARAN: There are other flowers he speaks of. I am thinking: if he goes on asking about such things there won't be any end to it. (Laughter) Sen seems to have other brilliant brothers: they make a gifted family, I hear.
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes.
NIRODBARAN: One brother who is an I.C.S. is said to be the most brilliant.
SRI AUROBINDO: Then why did he go in for the I.C.S.—to waste himself?
NIRODBARAN: That is what Sen told him but his father seemed to be keen about it. The I.C.S. was an easy walk-over for him.
SRI AUROBINDO: It is quite easy to pass the I.C.S.
NIRODBARAN: He also had some interest in our direction I understand, but now—
SRI AUROBINDO: Suppressed under the burden of the I.C.S. work?
NIRODBARAN: Yes.
SRI AUROBINDO: In that official routine work all the brilliant qualities are lost. There is no scope for them.
At noon after Sri Aurobindo's writing had been finished, Nirodbaran showed him Sen's letter and Sri Aurobindo explained the significance of his visions of flowers. Then the Mother came. Nirodbaran told the Mother aqain about Sen's letter and said that he was much worried by thoughts and couldn't concentrate.
THE MOTHER: Yes, he told me of that. Tell him not to worry. The more he concentrates on the trouble, the worse it will be.
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