Sri Aurobindo : conversations
THEME/S
15th January, 1939
Sri Aurobindo opened the topic by referring to a letter from an American.
Sri Aurobindo : There is a job which perhaps "X : " would like to attend to. The letter is addressed to Sri Aurobindo Ashram under the belief that it is a person. The man wants sporting items, and "predictions". He says :
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As you are a Yogi you "can go into trance" and we will share the profits!! Let me know your terms. Then he says : "If you don't want to take the money, you can give it to the poor! (turning to X.). You can go into trance or send "Y" into it. I will be a hard nut.
I have no objections to sharing profits, only we share in profits not in loss!! Besides, we class ourselves among the poor, so we won't have to find them! (pause)
All sorts of half-crazy people are writing to us from every where, Germany, America etc. I wonder how they manage to get the address.
Disciple : It must be from the magazine in which A wrote an article giving his Ashram address from which he thought "Aurobindo Ashram" was a man! In that case, A must take up the matter and reply to this man.
Disciple : I am afraid, we won't get anything in spite of the proposal to share profits. In Gujarat there was – I believe even now is – a small group of seekers under the guidance of late Narsimhacharya who got an offer from American promising fabulous returns from small investments. The followers were all taken in, Lakhs of rupees were sent and nothing was heard afterwards.
Disciple : On the other hand some Indian Sannyasis are making good business in America. One of them has modernized yoga; his method is a combination of business and yoga, "sets of lectures and courses of meditation" etc.
Sri Aurobindo : "R" was telling "M" that if he went to America he would be a great success. I think "R" was right. Some of these people have the character of a charlatan.
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Disciple : But coming to his question : is it possible to predict sport items and cotton prices and share-fluctuations?
Disciple : I knew an astrologer who impressed my cousin very much and when he acted under his guidance his predictions did not at all come true.
Sri Aurobindo : But I had a remarkable experience at Baroda, not of an astrologer but of one who knew thought-reading. His predictions as an astrologer were all wrong. The manager of my house, Chhotalal, took me to this man and asked me to have some questions in my mind.
As we entered his room he told me all the four questions that were in my mind; and the curious thing is that three questions were clearly formulated in my mind, but the fourth one had escaped me; but he caught that also; it was remarkable.
Disciple : Is anything being done to get some of your books published in America?
Sri Aurobindo : No. Besides, I don't know if the Americans are interested in profound questions. Swami Nikhilananda, I heard, wrote an article about me which Miss Wilson Nishta says, was profound. The editor of the paper returned it saying, "it won't interest the Americans," and he had to change it and make it what it is.
Disciple : But the Americans are open to new ideas.
Sri Aurobindo : Yes. If they would not want sensation and change the openness to new ideas would be a very great advantage. As it is all one can say is that there are more people in America interested in these things than in
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Europe, though in Europe also the number of people who are interested in these things is increasing now a days.
Disciple : One Thompson, graduate from Oxford, according to his own statement, came to the gate and I had some humourous exchange of sentences with him. He was very queer.
Sri Aurobindo : It must be he, who recently sent me a long letter on philosophy. I don't think, he himself was clear about what he wrote. What was your exchange with him like?
Disciple : I was just going out when the Sadhak at the gate-duty asked me to help him to understand this new arrival, Thompson. I asked him : May I know your name, please? He : "Name! I have no name". "Apart from philosophical considerations about the reality or unreality of it, a name is a necessity in this unphilosophical world" I said. He : "You can call me anything you like – it matters very little to me". I : "It is not a question of my calling you anything. Unfortunately there is the Police Department which will demand a passport with a name, and that matters."
Sri Aurobindo : Then what did he say?
Disciple : At last he said his name was thompson." (Laughter)
Disciple : I remember a difficult question : "Is it in keeping with yoga to get oneself insured?"
Sri Aurobindo : Thakur Dayananda would say "no". He was always depending on God and did not believe in storing things. If you don't get anything, it means, God wants
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you to starve. The whole group used to sing and dance, there was an excited expression of their Sadhana, some kind of vital demonstration.
Later on he complained that the disciples were drawing out his vital
forces.
They had the faith that nothing could happen to them; when the police came to arrest them they were all singing and dancing. Seeing them in exaltation the police went away. They thought that they were invincible. The Government sent soldiers to arrest them. Then their faith was shaken. One of the prominent disciples, Mohindra De also lost his faith, though he was the victim of his own enthusiasm.
Disciple : How can the vital forces of oneself be drawn out when one is in contact with the Divine?
Sri Aurobindo : The force that supports the work, the vital force, is different from the Divine Consciousness.
Disciple : Do you remember one Kulkarni who came and was complaining that his vital force was being drawn out?
Sri Aurobindo : Yes. He was surrounding by forces of disintegration, chaos, disaster and death. And he was unconsciously throwing it out.
Disciple : One of us then told you that Kulkarni had strength and intensity. Then you had said something remarkable : "You call it strength? It is some wild intensity of weakness–not strength!"
Sri Aurobindo : Intensity with solidity pays; but without support below, it does not lead to anything. 'B' was like that and so was 'J.'
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Disciple : But B did brilliant work.
Sri Aurobindo : Yes. What he did was brilliant but slight, there was nothing below to support, the intensity had no body, so to say. He went because of his ambition, he wanted to be a right-hand man. Mother put a divine entity into him; it left him when he left the place. He has failed all through.
Disciple : But he was a good lieutenant in the old days.
Sri Aurobindo : There are some people who are good as lieutenants, but by themselves they are nothing. 'B' is like that. I supported him but he used to leave one thing and go in for another. He spoiled his career through his own fault.
Disciple : Some people say that now he speaks unfavourably about the Ashram.
Sri Aurobindo : We know that. To 'M' who was coming here he said : "he has caught you by his philosophy" meaning me.
But the Mother knows these things even without any reports from outside.
Disciple : Our friend D who has the "eternal doubter" in him met Upen Banerjee at Calcutta and asked Upen whether he believes in God.
Sri Aurobindo : What did Upen say?
Disciple : He said : "How can I say I don't believe in God when I know Sri Aurobindo? I have a measuring rod for men and I can measure them all right; but in Sri Aurobindo's case I cannot measure him. In case of other
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great people they reach a certain point in their growth and then they stop, whereas in his case he is always going on further and further.
Sri Aurobindo : (smiled) I see. Upen also has intensity; he had agnosticism and faith. It is that which makes his writing brilliant. But he could never understand the "Arya". Why, Rishikesh (Kanjilal) also was one in whom doubt could never get the better of faith and faith could not of doubt! (Laughter) He always wanted to fix himself to some anchor, – he could not give up seeking, nor pursue steadily and find an anchor. "The movement will not grow" he used to say. (after a pause) The revolutionaries were quite an interesting lot and though not fit for yoga, one could not feel dull in their company.
Disciple : "K" was enthusiastic about Sadhana.
Sri Aurobindo : He was. But he was not able to stand the trial of yoga. I don't think he had the capacity to do the yoga; he had too tall an idea about himself, and he is crude. And as to 'Kh' I wonder how he could ever have done the yoga.
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