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
DR. MANILAL(as Nirodbaran was bending to touch Sri Aurobindo's knee): I see a trident. Sir, on Nirod's forehead.
SRI AUROBINDO: A trident?
DR. MANILAL: Yes, Sir.
NIRODBARAN: What does it mean?
SRI AUROBINDO: It means that you are Shiva. (Laughter)
NIRODBARAN(after a while): Some people want to know how to increase their receptivity.
SRI AUROBINDO: The answer would be followed by "How to do that?" (Laughter)
DR. MANILAL: One can understand how to open the lid of a vessel. One just pulls and it comes off. But (touching his head) how to open here?
SRI AUROBINDO: Just open it. (Laughter)
DR. MANILAL: Could you not smash our heads, Sir, as the blacksmith smashed Jupiter's head in the Greek story?
SRI AUROBINDO: What is that story? I don't know of any blacksmith doing that.
DR. MANILAL: That is what is given in children's books, Sir.
SRI AUROBINDO: That may be for children. What I know is that Jupiter had a severe pain in his head. Suddenly his head burst open and Minerva came out of it.
DR. MANILAL: What about Nirod's receptivity question, Sir?
SRI AUROBINDO: You have to become quiet, become wide and open or become open and wide.
NIRODBARAN: Is not wideness a result of quietness?
SRI AUROBINDO: Not necessarily; one may be wide without being quiet.
DR. MANILAL: It seems to me, Sir, quietude of the mind is most important.
SRI AUROBINDO: Not only the mind, there is the vital, then the physical—and (nodding his head) then the Inconscient. (Laughter)
DR. MANILAL: End of the story. Sir? (Laughter)
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes! When the Inconscient is in a proper condition of quietude, you are able to receive.
DR. MANILAL: That would mean throwing away all disturbances.
SRI AUROBINDO: Not all. There is a central quietness—when the stuff of the mind becomes quiet—a condition in which one can receive in spite of all disturbances.
DR. MANILAL: Am I receptive, Sir? (Laughter)
SRI AUROBINDO: Your mind may be but your body is not.
DR. MANILAL: What percentage of receptivity have I, Sir?
SRI AUROBINDO: These things don't go by percentage. Besides, receptivity is infinite.
DR. MANILAL: How to know if one is receptive?
SRI AUROBINDO: If you receive you know you are receptive. (Laughter)
DR. MANILAL: My shoulder is the same, Sir—painful as before.
SRI AUROBINDO: That means it doesn't receive and so is not receptive.
EVENING
DR. MANILAL: They speak of a golden lid, Sir, above the head which covers the face of the Sun. Is it a matter of experience?
SRI AUROBINDO: Of course.
DR. MANILAL: Is it in the subtle body that one feels these things?
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, one feels a sense of boring, drilling, hammering—so many things. Never had any such an experience?
DR. MANILAL: Yes, Sir. I had it, but long ago. It was marvellous, Sir, at the time. Even while going in a carriage I used to feel the descent of Ananda, Force, etc. Now all that is past history. (Laughter)
SRI AUROBINDO: They were experiences in the mind. Never had any force descending into the vital?
DR. MANILAL: No, Sir!
SRI AUROBINDO: You are closed in the vital then and, when the vital opens, you may be closed in the physical. (Laughter)
DR. MANILAL: Tragedy after tragedy, Sir. Experience of ascent and descent also stopped. Sir.
SRI AUROBINDO: Why? Didn't you find it interesting?
DR. MANILAL: Very interesting.
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