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: Sikandar Hyat Khan has strongly attacked Gandhi.
SRI AUROBINDO(smiling): Yes.
NIRODBARAN: He says Gandhi's non-participation in the war is stabbing the British in the back.
SRI AUROBINDO: Non-violently!
SATYENDRA: Violent or non-violent, the result is the same.
NIRODBARAN: Sikandar says he can't understand Gandhi's logic. The logic of Mahatmas is different from that of ordinary mortals like him. Otherwise what could be meant by non-embarrassing the British Government and at the same time preaching India's non-participation?
SATYENDRA: I would like to know what Kripalani says about this statement of Gandhi. He has a keen intellect.
PURANI: The Sikhs also don't understand; they say, "These are intellectual quibbles." Neither can they conceive of how the defence of India can be done non-violently.
SRI AUROBINDO: That is something I can't swallow myself.
SATYENDRA: Gandhi himself can't carry Congress with him. But the question has been shelved for the present—I hope buried like Aurangzeb's musicians. (Aurangzeb forbade all music. In spite of that, some took out a musical procession in front of his palace. He ordered the musicians to be buried alive.)
SRI AUROBINDO: Is music forbidden by the Koran?
SATYENDRA: I don't know.
PURANI: There is no injunction against it in the Koran, as in the case of art.
SRI AUROBINDO: Art is different; it is idolatry. But there are so many things without injunctions in the Koran. Is there an injunction against killing brothers?
PURANI: No, but if someone is a drunkard he can be killed. That is how they killed Murad. They themselves made him drunk and on that pretext killed him.
SRI AUROBINDO: What about Dara, then?
PURANI: He was a Kafir.
SRI AUROBINDO: Are Kafirs to be killed according to the Koran?
PURANI: Don't know. They find so many things in the Koran. Even the idea of non-cooperation, they say, is found in it. That was during the Khilafat agitation. They say that Mohammed was threatened with his life and he fled and that was non-cooperation.
SRI AUROBINDO: Many people have fled in such circumstances! Then I myself was a non-cooperator since I fled from Bengal! (Laughter)
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